May Pagkain sa Basura: Addressing Policy Gaps in Solid Waste Management

This policy brief looks at PNU South Luzon’s waste generation and solid waste management through the conduct of Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS) on campus. We have three key findings: 1) University events balloon waste generation by as much as 700%; 2) the largest waste generations were paper, food waste, and residuals; and 3) residuals are mostly single-use plastics and containers, related to food consumption. Moreover, we find that there is a policy gap - with food waste constituting a quarter of total waste generation, yet no clear mechanism to address it in RA 9003, nor in the PNU Plastic Reduction and CLAYGO Policy. We recommend revisiting national and local policies to align with events planning, review the use of MRF and the possibility of an in-house infrastructure to process food wastes; and continuously monitor waste generation