Global Campaign against Inorganic Waste

This day was a big day for my co-exchange student, Mr. Jeremy Zulueta for he will be representing the Philippines and the University of Mindanao in the first ever international forum held in UNISDA participated by 4 countries including ours. Along with Philippines are of course Indonesia, Thailand and Timor-Leste. This international forum talks about a social issue that these countries and most countries around the world, if not all, are currently facing.

               With the theme “Global Campaign against Inorganic Waste”, this first ever forum of millennial students was spearheaded by Mr. Hafidh Nusrallah for the cause of raising awareness to students about the condition of inorganic waste and its impact to the society, environment and health.

               There were about 400 students attending the program and joined the short march nearby the .university as petition for people around to be particular in reducing the use of inorganic materials and take care of their own wastes.

               The program was emceed by Yesnia Nourma Permatasari, a graduating student of UNISDA majoring English Education. Indonesia was represented by Khoirotun Nisa, who is from the English department and on her last semester. She is also a student from UNISDA. Risna Afriliani represented Timor Leste and Arseeyah Tahe represented Thailand. And of course, I couldn’t be more any proud than I already am with my co-exchange student who didn’t just represented Philippines but represented it well, with class and intellect.

               Each of them was asked about what they think of the inorganic waste condition. I learned from Nisa that this is a big problem in their country, Indonesia despite the regulations and laws in place. Jeremy mentioned how there are about 40,000 tons of inorganic waste generated everyday in the Philippines and how plastics largely became a part of every Filipino life.

               Jeremy mentioned that inorganic waste isn’t an isolated problem as it leads to other severe social problems like ground and water pollution, air pollution, flooding and spread of diseases. Being a Filipino myself, I can attest to what Jeremy was saying. There were a lot of sources of plastics back in my country which includes wastes from regular households and manufacturers whose packaging are made from plastics, be it food, medicine, water, and other goods.

               I was amazed with how my co-exchange student stood up in front of the mass of audience confidently and spoken articulately about this problem. He cited several initiatives that the Philippine government has right now in order to minimize the use of plastics namely straw-less restaurants policy, paper bags for grocery and shopping, CLAYGO or Clean as You Go policy in some universities and other regulations.

               University of Mindanao is one example of a university under the policy of CLAYGO which according to Jeremy, builds sense of responsibility and a character of accountability of students to their own wastes.

               Each of the countries’ representative has a lot to share. I am so elated to have attended such gathering where people from different parts of the world talk diplomatically about a particular issue.

               “AS AN INDIVIDUAL, one act may not move mountains or may not give a huge impact but if we do this together and everyone do their part, it will give solutions we never thought possible.”

– Jeremy Zulueta, 2019