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2.2 Topic j: Public education

East Asia/Pacific

Ecology and the role of environmental management are becoming part of the school curricula in Australia, Japan, and New Zealand. All the industrialized countries have frequent campaigns to promote environmental awareness. The "Clean Up Australia Day" has expanded to be the "Clean Up the World" movement.

The subjects of ecology and environmental management are being introduced in the school curricula in some developing countries, but there is not much expertise available to instruct teachers, especially as regards waste management.

Despite the lack of resources, campaigns are organized regularly to promote environmental awareness and resource conservation through recycling/reuse of waste materials. An attitudinal problem to be overcome is that "it's the government's job to deal with garbage." When Malaysia launched a national program for cleanliness, the Ministry of Housing and Local Government chose a slogan that translated as "When the public is clean, the nation will be healthy." Some people said they found this very puzzling the public did not need to be clean as it was the government's responsibility to ensure cleanliness.

Examples of public education in both the industrialized and the developing countries include:

• Regular "Green and Clean" campaigns to promote environmental awareness (e.g., the campaigns of Metro Manila Women Balikatan Movement and Green Forum in Manila);
• Introduction of environmental education and ecology in the school curricula; organization of teachers' workshops (Australia, New Zealand);
• Television cartoons (e.g., the Magic Eyes movement in Bangkok);
• In many Japanese cities, extensive outreach by solid waste departments through school visits to explain MSWM problems and waste minimization, recycling, and reuse. In Osaka, there are "anti-littering" leaders and "no littering" forums; the first day of each month is designated "beautification day," when there is a coordinated clean-up effort.
• Promotion of green products, green labeling, and green manufacturing;
• Establishment of instruction centers which are responsible for publishing newsletters and providing information to schools, businesses, the public, and plant managers to enhance performance and create awareness (e.g., in Osaka).

South and West Asia

There are two rather different conceptions of public understanding of MSWM. The prevalent approach is the conventional "public education" one. This assumes that citizens are largely ignorant about MSWM and lack motivation to learn; that behavior will change as a result of educational exhortations; and that what is required most is public compliance with rules established by the authorities. The alternative is the community participation approach. In this the role of the public is conceived differently: waste management is seen as meeting citizens' needs so that citizens are entitled to transparency in decision making; MSWM is not merely a service delivered by urban authorities but a cooperative undertaking that requires the coordination of informal behaviors and conventional MSWM; and there is an assumption that watchfulness on the part of citizens is crucial to monitoring MSWM. Under this conception, citizens can voluntarily perform some of the work, and people should assess the performance of municipal staff and have the right to raise questions about decisions on, for instance, the siting of dumps and transfer stations.

There is often misunderstanding between the proponents of these views, and this may be observed in some Indian subcontinental cities where groups are mobilizing residents for better solid waste services. But, more importantly, there is room for constructive accommodation between the two approaches. Recently, in Bangalore, India, a stakeholder environmental organization (Swabhimana) has been created that includes representatives of both the city corporation and the residents.

Public knowledge, and the willingness to devote time and energy to cleanliness and waste reduction, vary along the full range of knowledge and motivation, both within societies and across societies in this region. In the countries with low levels of literacy, habits of frugality and recovery/recycling are strong, public awareness of modern solid waste management is very low, and there are many problems of collection and disposal. In the more wasteful economies, there are higher expectations for waste services, but insufficient attention to waste reduction and recycling. Understanding of the dynamics and the costs of MSWM needs to be increased among the public and also among government servants and politicians.

A constraint upon public education and community participation is that strongly held attitudes, often grounded in religious beliefs, do not change readily. In most of the societies in this region, waste handling is not a culturally acceptable practice for most categories of the population: waste collection work, and certain types of recycling, are done by designated groups or disadvantaged people, who are stigmatized. Waste left in public areas may not be perceived as a public health risk or even an eyesore. These are some of the attitudes that will need to change if the societies are to have effective waste management.

Anti-litter campaigns, a popular approach to public education, do not have lasting effect unless they are part of a more comprehensive strategy. Simple litter campaigns are, in effect, "end of the pipe" approaches, since they do not address issues of waste generation and disposal.

Some country campaigns are arranged as annual cleanliness weeks or lectures to schools. Information leaflets are also distributed before major festivals to inform the public about special arrangements at those times. The most outstanding example is during the Haj. The German-aided solid waste project in Kathmandu included public education that was developed by social workers familiar with the local cultures. Community education is a component of the solid waste management program in Karachi, funded by the Asian Development Bank. The campaigns run by the Water and Sewage Authority of Lahore, against solid waste dumping in sewers and streams, would be beneficial for any city or town in the region.

Most public awareness efforts are directed to children, since they are responsive and easily accessible, and it is believed that they can influence adult attitudes. In Karachi an NGO (Gul Bahoo) has devised school recycling projects. In a few schools dry and wet waste is being separated and the organization comes once a week to collect the waste in exchange for toys.

Since the late 1980s, Israel has greatly increased its efforts to support public awareness and cooperation. The Maintenance of Cleanliness Law (1984) allows members of the public to be appointed "cleanliness trustees," who attend training sessions. The Ministry of Environment organizes anti-litter campaigns. The full gamut of techniques is used for public education: press releases, television spots, distribution of stickers and posters, school programs, and beach cleanups. Recently, the Ministry of Environment has begun awarding environmental "green" labels to products, including ones that facilitate recycling.

The success of the inter-city cleanliness and health competition in Indonesia has prompted discussion of similar competitions in the Middle East. The important issues in such competitions are the criteria used to judge whether a city is "clean" and how good is the information presented on compliance with the criteria.

In India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka in the past ten years, citizen groups have been spearheading changes in public awareness of waste and recycling issues. Organizations like Civic Exnora in India devote a considerable amount of time to public presentations on litter problems and the potential for cooperation to organize better waste collection in neighborhoods. Community groups are paying more attention to source separation to enhance recycling and assist waste pickers.

The corporate sector has begun to support awareness announcements, such as brief television announcements featuring recycling enterprises and the work of citizen groups. They also contribute to school campaigns, supporting recycling drives and canteen composting.

International workshops, bilateral action research projects, and the work of individual scholars and some entrepreneurs are beginning to fill the gaps in public education programs. For instance, expertise and funds from the Netherlands, the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements, and foreign advisors (from Canada, the Netherlands, and Switzerland) have supported a small core of local experts and concerned citizens in Bangalore since 1989. The Centre for Environmental Education, the Mythri Foundation (Waste Wise project), and Swabhimana (a citizens' movement; the term means "self-respect") are all active in keeping waste issues before the public and in lobbying the city administration. A point emphasized by a 1994 workshop on "linkages in solid waste management" was that education has to reach politicians and bureaucrats, as well as residents.

There is much scope for exchange of information and collaboration among city departments and NGOs on the subject of community participation in and knowledge about MSWM. While there are limitations to city- twinning arrangements, the exchange of ideas among similar cities and towns is developing. CITYNET is supporting such exchanges in Asia.

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• International Year of Forests
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• World Environment Day
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