Philippines Outreach

 Philippines Outreach

Grace Hyunjoo Lee

The members of Ecosave Club have been helping those in need in the Philippines in collaboration with Open Hands for many years. To list a few of the activities, we have been sponsoring children with no legal status so that they can obtain birth certificates and be registered as lawful citizens of the Philippines.  We also have been helping provide water kits to families who do not have access to clean water so that they can drink clean filtered water.  When the trip to the Philippines was confirmed with travel restrictions lifted, all 5 of us got excited that we could finally meet and interact with those in the Philippines.
The first place of visit for the outreach was Bay Town in Antipolo city. When we arrived there, many of the children were gathered in the open area and greeted us. Contrary to my imagination, the kids seemed to have positive energy. A few of the children even approached us and held out their hands, meaning they perceive us as respectable people. Taking this hand and holding it up to their forehead symbolizes sharing our luck with them. Through small acts like this, I learned that the children had a positive image of us and this made me want to leave a good impression of us and to try to understand them as well.

When I looked around the open area we met the children, I realized it was surrounded by a concrete structure with grids, which looked like a giant beehive. The structure was a cemetery with some rooms blocked and the rest open; the enclosed ones had corpses inside. The whole village were living next to the cemetery and the children were playing right in front of the dead bodies. During the rainy season, the water would fill up to 3 or 4 stories of the cemetery and when the water level comes down, water that filled the enclosed rooms and the corpses inside would flow out and children would play in the puddle of the water.
We walked around the village and found that most of the houses were very small and were built with wood panels and plastic tarps and I could imagine water dripping into the house when it rains. We visited 3 families to listen to their stories and to see how they are using water kits. Since the houses were very small, there was not enough space for all 5 of us to comfortably move, and it was very hot in the house with not enough ventilation. When I heard these houses weren’t the worst of them, I was shocked and understood how difficult their lives must be. All 3 of the families we visited said the water kits were very useful and it looked like they were diligently maintaining the kits for clean water. Some questions we asked about the difficulty they suffered from triggered emotional responses from the ladies, and it angered me that resources were not distributed equally amongst the social classes during the pandemic.
The contrast between the children’s moods and their quality of life struck me to realize how much happiness they can find from the little things they have while many of us are dissatisfied with abundance we possess.

Through this entire outreach experience, including Bay Town and the Cherryl school, I was able to connect deeply with the people here and understand their living circumstances much more. Directly communicating with the people who had been watching my educational videos was really exciting and motivated me for the next activities I will be doing with Ecosave!

The Role of Green Leaders of the Next Generation

Role of Green Leaders

Written by Caleb Paik

Up until these past years, green leaders have been pretty lax. Human leaders disregarded the austerity of climatic changes and with the increase of environmental hazards around the world, it is crucial that the world now needs future green leaders that will play an essential role in helping to restore the earth back to its healthier, former state. One of these roles can be partaking in the development of green technologies or products. Green products or technologies are sustainable articles designed to minimize environmental impact. 

Whether you realize it or not, green products are all around us. These products can include reusable cups, reusable lids, reusable shopping bags, recyclable cutlery, recyclable plates, and etc. All of these products have a common purpose of being eco friendly by being reusable or recyclable. They also aid in the process of keeping pollution, specifically plastic, widespread to a minimum. Still, with these products only about 9% of the plastic is reused or recycled. Around 12% is incinerated and the rest is unused, and either accumulated in landfills or natural environments. 

With these products in mind, it is significant to recognize that the priority in environmental restoration is shallow. Therefore, it is also crucial to spread the fact that future green leaders have a very important role in impeding the continuation of environmental harm.

Resource Recirculation

Resource Recirculation

Written by Caleb Paik

When we think about waste, we tend to think about materials that bring harm to nature. These materials can be perilous and most often they are unwanted. Plastic waste, for example, is definitely one that brings harm with huge effects. Most of the millions of tonnes of plastic collected are brought to landfills, but some believe that this itself is a waste of a valuable resource. With the determination to change this, the chemical industry of the Cefic organization developed solutions to recycle plastic waste that would normally be sent to landfills, or incinerated.

With the help of chemical recycling technologies, the chemical industry was able to figure out a process. These technologies can break down plastic waste and transform them into secondary raw materials, materials that are recycled to be used instead or alongside the original source, to produce new chemicals and plastics with nearly identical quality. As of now, the organization successfully developed consumer products such as food packaging, mattresses, refrigerator parts, etc. However, they plan on taking it to an industrial scale. 

This infographic shows how chemical recycling technologies work. It shows how they can transform waste into a reusable product, creating a cycle. This can be done through three processes: Dissolution, Depolymerization, and Conversion. These processes handle the plastic waste that would otherwise be disposed of. The first process, dissolution, takes the idea of extracting plastic. It uses heat and solvents to dissolve the plastic into polymers and additives. While the polymers are untouched, the additives are replaced to produce the new recycled plastic. The second process is the depolymerization method, which takes the idea of breaking the waste down into basic building blocks. Using different combinations of chemistry, solvents, and heat, the polymers within the waste are broken down into monomers. Potential contaminants are then removed from the monomers. Finally, these monomers are “fed back” into the normal plastic production process, as a secondary raw material. Finally, the last process is conversion. Conversion takes the idea of turning it into raw materials. Using heat and chemistry, the waste is turned into either liquid or gas. Depending on which one, it takes place with the absence of oxygen, or the presence of oxygen respectively. Similar to the depolymerization process, potential contaminants are then removed. The liquid or gas then reenters the chemical production chain as a secondary raw material. 

• https://cefic.org/a-solution-provider-for-sustainability/chemical-recycling-making-plastics-circular/

Edible insect protein as pet food

Eco-friendly pet owners are turning to edible insects as an alternative food source for their pets. 

Experts suggest that there are numerous benefits to feeding edible insects to pets. 

Firstly, environmental benefits include the following: 

- Edible insects contain a lot of protein whereas farmed species and animal meat contain high fats, oils, mineral and vitamin levels 

- According to the University of California at Davis, a single cow raised for meat produces around 220 pounds of methane gas each year. Such mass production of methane gas in the process of farming contribute to the emission of greenhouse gases. On the contrary, insect farming (an edible insect) produce lower rates of methane. For instance, crickets (edible insect) produces less than one percent of the greenhouse gas that cows produce. 

- Due to the fact that insects require less space for farming, it is possible to use less land whilst still creating similar rates of nutritious food. This helps to reduce carbon footprints whilst still sustaining the nutritiously valuable aspect of edible insects. 

Because more and more pet owners, who have an eco-friendly mindset, are searching for edible insects, there have been an increase in the number of companies that provide edible insect as pet foods. For instance, Jiminy's is one of the first companies to add powdered cricket protein to dog foods and treats. They continue to promote the consumption of edible insects for dogs by claiming that insect protein is great for dogs with food allergies, a well balanced approach for the dogs' diet and is free of the pathogens that plague the meat industry. 

After seeing that edible insect protein has become a business model for pets, I was very intrigued by the idea that edible insects are not only seen as an alternative food source for humans but also for our beloved pets as well. In the future, as a member of the ECOSAVE club, I hope to be able to promote the implementation of edible insect protein in pet foods in my local community as through research, I have found that there aren't many edible insect pet foods in Korea. 

Written by Ella Hong 

The Second Birthday Project

To promote the Second Birthday Project, we made a video clip of what it’s all about. Watch the video and find out!

By. Alex Sangwook Ahn

NGOs and NPOs

During the summer while working as an intern at Open Hands, I wrote a report regarding the difference between NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) and NPOs (Non-Profit Organizations). They are similar in that they exist for the main purpose of making the world a better place. The term NGO and the business type were created in 1945, with the inception of the United Nations. As you can infer by its name, the organization is not a part of the government, but they still help to provide humanitarian aid and advocate for social change. They may also operate in the same areas as government agencies. NGOs can exist at the local, national, or international level. The Salvation Army and American Red Cross are NGOs that are headquartered in the United States but they provide services across the world and the United Nations and Amnesty International are international NGOs. NGOs help benefit society in many sectors and practices such as

• Managing emerging health crises (ie. coronavirus, HIV/AIDS, etc)

• Promoting health education (ie. waste disposal and good hygiene)

• Developing social institutions (ie. schools and roads)

• Securing women’s equality (ie. boosting literacy and offering counseling)

• Dealing with community issues (ie. crime, prostitution, etc)

A Non-Profit Organization refers to a business that does not distribute its profits to owners or shareholders. The profits get reinvested into the business to manage expenses, meet its social goals, and pay staff. NPOs have the mission to help a specific cause or community and they may operate on a small scale like within a community, or a broader scale. NPOs exist to serve a variety of causes and issues. For example, they may:

• Support scientific research

• Provide literacy and educational programs

• Prevent animal cruelty

• Aid in stopping child abuse

• Promote sports programs

NGOs receive funding much like NPOs such as private donations, loans, grants, membership dues, and the sales of services to stay in business. NPOs can also receive funding in those ways in addition to corporate contributions, investments, government contracts or grants, and tax revenues. NGOs and NPOs have a lot in common, aiming to serve the public and promoting positive social change, the main difference being that NGOs operate internationally. Through the support of volunteers and donations, they exist and work to reach their goal of helping to change the world for the better.

By. Alex Sangwook Ahn

Certificate of Appreciation

In September, we were thrilled to hear the good news that the consistent work that we have been doing together with Open Hands to help underprivileged villages in the Philippines earned an official recognition, and finally today we received our Certificate of Appreciation. They thanked us for the donation of personal computers and support of the wi-fi internet connection which enables the children of the village to broaden their horizon in their learning experience and help the teachers to provide a better quality of education. In addition, they thanked our efforts in promoting the “Second Birthday Project” (Late Birth Registration) and providing funds to help the unregistered children to become legally registered and to receive the proper education that they are entitled to. 

Our club will continue to support the Second Birthday Project so that more children can earn their rights and pursue their dreams. 

By Alex Sangwook Ahn