Bianca Nicole Lerma and Holly Pantaleon have always wanted to spread awareness about current environmental issues but couldn’t quite put a finger on the right step to take. In one of their diving trips, however, the friends stumbled upon a reason strong enough to make them act: plastic waste littered the seafloor. What was initially a relaxing dive turned into a cleanup.
Today, fortunately, they and 87 other members of ALON—the environmental organization formed by Bianca and Holly in UA&P last year—have the opportunity to teach more Filipinos to be conscious of their plastic waste incurrence and how they can manage it. ALON (Association for the Land & Ocean’s Necessities) emerged as champion in “#EcoSquadGoals: A Digital Citizen Science Approach to Understanding Solid-Waste Management” sponsored by the De La Salle University – Br. Alfred Shields FSC Ocean Research (SHORE) Center Marine Station in coordination with UNESCO.
The competition, held in celebration of the World Science Day of Peace and Development, aims to increase awareness among the youth about how their current lifestyle impacts the environment and how they can contribute to minimizing or managing plastic waste. The series of activities—which included a month-long data collection on the amount of plastic waste generated by each participant’s household—culminated on January 8, 2021.
The seven-member team of Bianca (3BSIE), Holly (3ABIMC), Rallion Abeledo (3ABPE), Adrian Reodica (3BSIE), Ernina Cruz (2BSBA), Monday Manalo (2ABMEM), and Katrina Jimenez (2ABPE) grabbed the Eco Squad Grant of US$300 with their proposed SAGIP app, a data collection application meant to keep track of the users’ waste incurrence and to direct them to the nearest waste management facilities or recycling outlets. SAGIP stands for Systematic Application on Goals for Integrating Plastic Management.
“The idea of having a mobile application that helps you track your plastic consumption, introduce sustainable stores for you to find alternatives to plastic products, and even map locations where you can drop off your segregated waste materials really stood out amongst our competitors,” said Bianca, president and co-founder of ALON. She and Rallion Abeledo faced the judges in a 10-minute Q&A session.
Rallion, who also gave a three-minute elevator pitch of SAGIP to the judges prior to the Q&A, was challenged by the series of talks about plastic and waste issues that was part of the competition.
“It was a tough reality to wrap my head around,” the training and membership officer of ALON admitted, “but understanding and addressing it is drastically important to our lives.”
Holly couldn’t agree more. “Seeing that most of the Filipinos’ lifestyle heavily relies on single-use plastics has made waste management a challenge for us. It is definitely not something that can be fixed in an instant; there are too many underlying factors as to why the Philippines struggles with waste management,” the executive vice president and co-founder of ALON remarked.
The Philippines produces 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste per year and is one of the five countries in the region with the highest plastic-waste leakage (movement of plastic from land-based sources to the ocean), according to the Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Development and (2015).
The Eco Squad Grant serves as seed money for the team’s initiative, which is expected to be implemented in the next six months. Though the grant is not enough to cover the projected expenses, Bianca saw the problem as an opportunity to involve more people in the project. Their team is in the process of talking to students and staff of UA&P who would be interested in helping them develop the app in terms of finances, management, programming, and marketing.
“There are a lot of people who are willing to help us work on this project,” she said, “and for that we are very grateful.”
ALON’s main objective is to nurture life in all its diversity by raising awareness and educating people on environmental issues and abuse. This semester, ALON has a lot of online projects in store for both the UA&P and non-UA&P community – from webinars and fundraisers to online garage sales.
“We hope that ALON will be able to inspire and influence others into choosing the sustainable path,” Bianca expressed.
ALON’s marketing member Monday Manalo assented, “ALON’s purpose goes beyond the walls of the University, and this win is a way to push us students to step up. Ultimately, I believe that all of us knew that this win is for a higher purpose. This is proof that students can and will continue to fight for our own generation and for the future generations to come.”#
You may reach ALON through Facebook (UA&P ALON) and Instagram (alon.uap). You may also email them at [email protected].
Banner photo by Cédric Frixon on Unsplash.
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