FEU integrates waste management in its curriculum

The Far Eastern University has integrated the concepts of environmental sanitation and waste management in its nursing curriculum. The program calls for learning activities being conducted outside the classroom and university premises such as undertaking actual observations on how several barangays in Metro Manila have taken steps in addressing the issues on prevailing ecological and environmental conditions.

In line with this, nursing students of the FEU-Institute of Nursing (FEU-IN) visited recently the materials recovery facility (MRF) of barangay University of the Philippines campus in Diliman, Quezon City. In barangay UP Campus, the waste management process starts from the collection of food and garden wastes, and recyclable wastes of MRF eco-workers using motorized bicyles within the residential areas of the campus consisting of approximately 500 families, three times a week. The collected usable wastes then undergo secondary sorting, shredding and composting in long elevated piles. finally, the compost, which may serve as fertilizer, is later sold through its consumers’ cooperative.

Established in 2001 through the assistance of the National Solid Waste Management Commission secretariat of the Environmental Management Bureau, the MRF is operated by the UP Office of the Vice Chancellor for Community Affairs and manned by four utility workers under the management of Prof. Armando Basug.