Ateneo de Manila Universtiy and its Green Revolution

May 6, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Ateneo de Manila University: An Advocate of the Environment

The Ateneo de Manila University has always been an advocate for environmental protection as can be seen from the wide-open spaces and limited number of air-conditioned rooms on-campus. They have also been implementing a waste segregation system, so both student and faculty will be trained to throw recyclables in one trash bin and non-recyclables in another.

Also, the Clean as You Go (CLAYGO) system was implemented in school cafeterias to ensure Ateneans had the discipline and courtesy to clean their tables, so that they can be readily used by others. Last school year 2008-2009, a new rule was implemented on-campus, in favor of ADMU’s support for the environment.

The Continued Green Revolution

In conjunction with the CLAYGO system a new system called Bring Your Own Baunan (BYOB) was implemented by the school administration with the help of the Student Council and the Environmental Science Society.

The premise of the BYOB is as follows:
• Cafeteria concessionaires will no longer be allowed to use any Styrofoam products in packaging their food. Instead, only paper products will be allowed.

• Concessionaires will also be provided with plastic plates, and metal spoon and forks, which students who dine-in the cafeteria or in nearby eating areas will use. Thus, the amount of trash will be lessened significantly

• Furthermore, students, faculty, and staff now have the option of bringing their own food containers such as reusable Tupperware. When they provide their own containers, they will receive a discount from any food concessionaire they buy from.

• Thus, not only will the amount of trash be reduced, but Ateneans will learn the value of reusing food containers as well.

On the other hand, students and teachers seem to disagree as to whether Styrofoam or paper is a bigger environmental hazard, and others also complain of the inconvenience that the BYOB system brings.

After all, you cannot take-out food unless you bring your own container. Also, the supposed discount is nullified by some concessionaires who just raised their prices in response to the project.

Nevertheless, the project was a success overall, and is a sign of the efforts the Ateneo de Manila University is making in its green revolution.

Filed Under: environmental hazards, Everyday Green, green revolution, Green Tips, Non-biodegradable Waste, Recycling, waste segregation Tagged With: , , , , ,

Money on Paper Recycling

April 22, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Earning money is easy with Recycled Paper.

Who said there is no money in recycling paper? They must be mistaking. Nowadays that the awareness of people about recycling paper has been intensified and companies even supports this campaign, many has made good money from selling recycled papers.

I can consider paper recycling as one of the oldest ways of making money from trash. It is easy especially when you have piles of used papers from school or office. Many shops are buying papers as long as it is not crumpled and wet. All you have to do is collect, save and sell, then that’s it! Easy money as they say.
I myself started to recycle paper couple of years ago. At first, it was not actually intended for selling or to make money out of it – really for the sake of recycling. What I did was I saved my school papers and reused the other side that is not printed or written on. But since it was piling-up, including the books, my mom thought of selling it. I was able to somewhat gain a small amount from it.

Recycling Papers will bring great benefits for you and for Mother Earth. If you think of making this as a business, you could start small. All it takes is hard-work, organization, and your time and you’ll find it easy to manage you Paper Recycling Business.

recycled-newspaper

recycled-paperbags

recycled-hamper

Filed Under: Green Tips, Recycling Tagged With: , , , ,

Recycling Glass

February 4, 2009 By 1 Comment

recyling glass

    Recycling glass is another way that we can go green in our homes. Over month, we may fill up a box of waste bottles that we used– jars, wine bottles, glass soda bottles and other containers that are made of glass. We can help reduce the amount of waste glass that is coming to our landfills by separating them and putting them in glass banks.
    We just have to separate the glass by color. The most common colors of glass are colorless, green and brown. The colorless glass are the our jars and soda bottles. Green glass bottles are the wine bottles. Brown glass bottles are the beer bottles.
    They can be broken down and turn into recycled glass. Glass can be recycled over and over again and less energy is needed to recycle glass than to make glass. It will also conserve our natural resources.
    Recycling glass can also mean using our waste glass for other purposes. We can re-use jars to store sugar or coffee. We can also re-use wine bottles as decors for our living rooms.
    Big companies who manufacture beer and wines are also being urged to re-fill used bottles. This is what many companies in the Philippines do. People collect waste bottles in the community, they clean the bottles and they sell it to the companies who own the bottles so that the company can use the bottles again.
    But majority of companies who use bottles for containers of their products still manufacture or buy new glass. We can reduce our national usage of our fuel if we encourage these companies to follow the other companies who refill their bottles.
Filed Under: Everyday Green, Green Homes, Green Tips, Recycling Tagged With: ,

Green Bath and Body Works Soap

January 5, 2009 By Leave a Comment

organic soap

    When we lather our body with our favorite soap, do we know how many chemical ingredients in the soap that gets in contact with our skin and may enter our body through our skin’s pores? These are some of the ingredients used in making commercially bought soaps:
    -Coco Diethanol Amide
    -Sodium lauryl ether sulfate
    -Sodium silicate
    -Sodium tripolyphosphate
    -Caustic potash
    -Ethylene diamine tetra acetic acid
    -Sodium phosphate
    -Benzalkonium chloride
    -Glycerine
    -Carboxyl methy cellulose
    -Triethanol amine
    These are only some of the chemicals that are used in making soaps. They are needed to give the soap the quality of a soap: hard, produces bubbles and can clean oil and dirt in our body. If we use a soap that has added qualities such as a moisturizing soap or a soap that has a scent, then more chemicals are added in those soaps.
    Most of the chemicals found in our bath soaps are not harmful but they are still chemicals. They enter our body through our skin. When they enter our body, they become toxins that need to get out either through perspiration or peeing. When they don’t get out and they accumulate, they will cause illness including cancer.
    Good news is that today there are a lot of stores that are selling organic eco-friendly bath soaps. These soaps may be expensive but they are not made from chemicals. The ingredients are all natural meaning they are sourced from nature.  Using organic bath soaps helps in greening our planet because thsee soaps are not manufactured with chemicals in the factories that use up a lot of energy.
    When we use handmade soaps and organic soaps, we can help in reducing the air pollution that the factories of popular bath soaps emit in their factories. Besides, organic soaps are really good to out skin. They don’t cause skin irritation and dryness. THey can smell really good too when they are added with natural oils such as lavender and rosemary.
Filed Under: Conservation, Energy Saving, Everyday Green, Green Homes, Green Tips, Pollution, Toxic Wastes, Water Conservation, Water Resources Tagged With: ,

Green Hair Shampoo

December 29, 2008 By Leave a Comment

natural shampoo

    Have you ever thought about what our ancestors used as hair shampoo when there were still no factories and no electricity? When my grandmother was still alive, she used a natural hair cleanser: gugo. Gugo is a Tagalog word for this brown thing that looks like very small branches. I remember when I was a child, my grandmother used to use gugo on my hair. I can’t remember where she got it.
    I am looking at the back of the plastic bottle of my hair shampoo. It’s a popular brand name of hair shampoo that I bought in the grocery and these are the ingredients: Sodium Laureth Sulfide, Sodium Lauril Sulfate, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Sodium Benzoate, Glycol Distearate, Guar Hydroxypropyltrimonium and a lot more listed.
    I didn’t know I put that long list of chemicals on my hair everyday whenever I shapoo. Maybe I should get back to the natural hair shampoo. There are some people who use mayonnaise and avocado instead of conditioners and their hair are really shiny and soft. My roommate in College use beer to soften her hair. It didn’t smell nice but it did look healthy though.
    Come to think of it, using the bounty of our earth to clean our hair is not a bad idea. Here in the Philippines, “lauat” is a very popular herb for treatment of hair loss and dry hair. Green hair shampoo saves a lot of plastic bottle packaging and not to mention that toxins and chemicals that are produced that are harmful to the environment and to our own health.
    Maybe it’s time to go back to the basics. I regret I didn’t ask my grandmother where she get her gugo.
Filed Under: Conservation, Energy Saving, Everyday Green, Green Homes, Green Tips, Pollution, Toxic Wastes, Water Conservation, Water Resources Tagged With: , ,
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