Bayan: Broken glass theory and the garbage problem

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

LAST SATURDAY, January 28, 2012, HOLCIM, Hotels and Restaurant Association of Baguio (HRAB), the University of Cordilleras, in partnership with the Liga ng mga Barangay Baguio, held the Environmental Forum for barangays within the City of Baguio. The first set of barangays invited were Burnham-Legarda, Kabayanihan, City Camp Central, Rizal Monument, Upper Magsaysay, T. Alonzo, Harrison, Salud Mitra, ABCR and Session Road, along with representatives from Springhills Elementary School. Loakan-Apugan barangay was also represented as the said barangay shall be the model barangay for the project to be undertaken. Barangay officials of Lingsat, La Union served as resource persons as they presented the waste management procedures being undertaken in their barangay.

The environmental forum was held to present important measures which are being undertaken by HOLCIM and Barangay Lingsat, that could somehow be adopted by the barangays of the city. It was also intended to be an avenue for interaction among the participating Baguio based barangays, to enable them to converge and come up with unified or coordinated efforts so that together, they may come up with solutions pertaining to the garbage problem of the city.

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Hon. Joel Alangsab, Liga President, expressed his appreciation to HOLCIM, HRAB and the UC for their effort in taking part in finding solutions for the city, most especially now that the court has issued a Temporary Environmental Protection Order (TEPO) for the City to stop using the Irisan dumpsite. This poses a lot of problems for the barangays and the city as a whole, hence, a collective effort for waste reduction and proper waste management must be had up to the smallest units and contributors.

Delivering her message during the opening program of the activity, Dean Leonarda Aguinalde, VP for Administration of the University of the Cordilleras made mention of the “Broken Glass Theory”. A research on the theory provides that it is a criminological theory of the norm setting and signaling effect of urban disorder and vandalism on additional crime and anti-social behavior.

The theory was introduced in a 1982 article by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling, in an article titled “Broken Windows”. As an illustration: Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside; or consider a sidewalk, some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people start leaving bags of trash from take-out restaurants there.

From the book entitled “Fixing Broken Windows: Restoring Order and Reducing Crime in our Communities”, the theory was further illustrated that in order to prevent lawlessness and disorder: repair the broken windows within a short time, say, a day or a week, and the tendency is that vandals are much less likely to break more windows or do further damage. Clean up the sidewalk every day, and the tendency is for litter not to accumulate. The main idea is to fix the problems when they are small.

The broken glass theory can be illustrated in the present garbage problem of the city. For example, one student eats a candy and just throws the candy wrapper along the street. When the wrapper is left out on the street, it accumulates until it becomes significantly noticeable. Hence, it can be simply put that each and every one plays a role in being part of the solution, no matter how little contribution it may be. As Dean Aguinalde expressed in her message, “we should all learn to stop complaining, and that we should start to care, to share and to dare.” Instead of whining about the problem that the city is in with regards garbage, perhaps it is time to do something about it.

We all play a role; we all contribute to the society in a lot of ways which we perhaps do not realize, but then this contribution may be “good”, but it might also be “bad”. Start to care – here’s when we realize what kind of contribution to the society we would like to take part in – the good contribution; start to share – well, not financial considerations, but good contribution to the society by doing what we know would help solve the problems; and learn to dare – take the risks, make a stand. Things are always mostly easier said than done. Only when we dare to do something which others only speak of are we able to realize a goal, in this instance, to save Baguio.