Educación Ambiental para la Participación en la Gestión de Residuos Sólidos en un Centro Universitario

Published in: Engineering for a Smarter Planet: Innovation, ITC, and Computational Tools for Sustainable Development: Proceedings of the 9th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology
Date of Conference: August 3-5, 2011
Location of Conference: Medellin, Colombia
Authors: Jorge A. Pelayo López
Salvador García Ruvalcaba
Gabriela Pérez Carrillo
Refereed Paper: #239

Abstract

Environmental education (EE) is a learning process that increases people's knowledge and awareness about the environment, develops the necessary skills and expertise to address the challenges, and fosters attitudes, motivations, and commitments to make informed and responsible decisions concerning environmental problems. One environmental problem caused by modern society is the high generation of municipal solid waste. At the Centro Universitario de la Costa Sur (CUCSUR), of Guadalajara University, there was a serious environmental problem related to waste generation. In 2010, a diagnosis was made regarding knowledge and attitudes of university students in relation to environmental problems. A survey was conducted with the collaboration of students; there were students from the Social Service Department who participated in the survey. The results of the survey indicate that university students consider garbage one of the main problems to be solved, and we were able to find the causes, needs and strategies to find solutions to the problem. Based on the results of the analysis, an EE campaign was implemented in early 2011, which included the following: radio program interviews, spots, talks, songs, posters, meetings with teachers and students, clean up campaigns, etc. As a result of the campaign there has been a marked increase in student participation, improvements in public spaces and a remarkable reduction in waste generation.