Initiative to Zero Waste – Building a Composter for SMK Tebobon
Helping the Underprivileged Community
Composting is very important for food security. Through the composting process, organic waste becomes the input to produce nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, increasing water retention and cation exchange (CIC) and increase production profits. From the environmental point of view, recycling these waste and applying it to the soil provides many benefits such as increasing the organic matter in soil, reducing methane produced in the landfills or public waste, peat replacement as substrate, carbon capture, soil temperature control and increasing soil porosity as well as reducing the risk of erosion and desertification. Realizing the importance of Composting, Engineering Faculty of Universiti Malaysia Sabah has produced a prototype to compost organic waste such as food waste and leaves. This technology is planned to be transferred to rural school which is the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tebobon to train the staffs and students to make compost. The reason why this secondary school is selected because, although SMK Tebobon had been awarded Anugerah SERASI in year 2012, through the Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar (SERASI) programme and for three years from 2012, 2014 and 2016, SMK Tebobon had been awarded Anugerah Wira SERASI, they have one main problem which is the unfinished composting project. The existing composting project in SMK Tebobon was discontinued due to lack of expertise in the field as well as allocation. The existing composting system is an open system (Refer Figure 1) which has led to many problems such as the presence of stray dogs and is exposed to uncertain weather factors. Thus, not only composting process will ensure the environmental sustainability to be achieved but it also enrich the quality of human capital in terms of knowledge as well as improving the quality of life. Besides, it help strengthen the pupils’/students’ character and taught them to love and care for the environment.
Overview of Issue / Background
Composting is very important for food security. Through the composting process, organic waste becomes the input to produce nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, increasing water retention and cation exchange (CIC) and increase production profits. From the environmental point of view, recycling these waste and applying it to the soil provides many benefits such as increasing the organic matter in soil, reducing methane produced in the landfills or public waste, peat replacement as substrate, carbon capture, soil temperature control and increasing soil porosity as well as reducing the risk of erosion and desertification. Realizing the importance of Composting, Engineering Faculty of Universiti Malaysia Sabah has produced a prototype to compost organic waste such as food waste and leaves. This technology is planned to be transferred to rural school which is the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tebobon to train the staffs and students to make compost. The reason why this secondary school is selected because, although SMK Tebobon had been awarded Anugerah SERASI in year 2012, through the Sekolah Rakan Alam Sekitar (SERASI) programme and for three years from 2012, 2014 and 2016, SMK Tebobon had been awarded Anugerah Wira SERASI, they have one main problem which is the unfinished composting project. The existing composting project in SMK Tebobon was discontinued due to lack of expertise in the field as well as allocation. The existing composting system is an open system (Refer Figure 1) which has led to many problems such as the presence of stray dogs and is exposed to uncertain weather factors. Thus, not only composting process will ensure the environmental sustainability to be achieved but it also enrich the quality of human capital in terms of knowledge as well as improving the quality of life. Besides, it help strengthen the pupils’/students’ character and taught them to love and care for the environment.
Project Objectives (Vision & Mission)
i. To design and build composter.
ii. To provide training modules and guidance to teachers, staffs and students on handling the composter
Project Details (Activities and Tasks)
1. Design and build composter.
2. Provide training modules and guidance to teachers, staffs and students on handling the composter.
Expected Project Result & Outcomes
Statistics for school: -
There are total 2330 students, 127 teachers and 14 staffs studying and working in SMK Tebobon. Waste produced in school by each member is 50g * 2471 people= 124 kg of waste produced each day. The ratio of fertilizer produced from the waste is 100 kg of organic waste will produce 50 kg of fertilizer.
1. The school can produce its own fertilizer that can be used in the garden of the school.
2. Less waste going to Landfill from the school. We will be able to reduce the number of waste going to the landfill directly.
3. Teachers and Future generation (school students) will be more aware of the environment. They can see practically how the composting works and how it benefits our environment directly. It will be a new gateway for them to save our earth.
4. A real composter which will encourage the surrounding area community to build one for themselves. When the students will be aware of these benefits, they will spread the knowledge to their surrounding area as a result it will make a simple composter for their house and society they live in. A whole area can be changed if we can build a composter in the school.
0% of RM1.00 Goal
Project Information
| University name | : | UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA SABAH |
| Project leader name | : | Patricia Bennedette anak Danggau |
| Location of project held | : | SMK Tebobon, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. |
| Beneficiary | : | SMK Tebobon’s teachers, staffs and students |
| Number of beneficiaries | : | Approximately 1800 personnel |
Section I
a. Project goals
The goals of this project is to design and build a composter and to provide training modules and guidance to teachers, staffs and students on handling the composter in Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Tebobon, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Through the implementation of this composter, waste generated to landfill from the school can be reduced and the school can produce its own fertilizer that can be used in the garden of the school
b. Did other fund-raising efforts contribute to your projects? What were they?
The initial budget requested for this project was RM 4000. After our proposal had been revised by the judging panels of Projects for Happiness 2019, this project managed to receive total project funding support from Khind Starfish Foundation which is RM 3600 in which our team has to raise 15 % of crowd funding from the budget from a minimum of 10 persons. Having said that, our team successfully managed to raise RM 450 crowd funding. The total crowd funding was mainly contributed by students, lecturers and SMK Tebobon community as well. By looking from expected project expenses for the construction, the budgets only fit for the price of equipment and materials for the construction. Due to the budget limitation, our team decide to reduce the labour expenses by implementing the construction activity together with students and community in SMK Tebobon. In addition, we also managed to reduce budget for buying equipment and tools for the construction by using readily available tools and equipment from the schools and the community.
c. Provide details about how the project actually worked.
I. Unanticipated difficulties and budget constraints
One of the most unanticipated difficulties that we faced throughout this project was the process of fund transferring between Bendahari UMS and the group of students executing the project. Total RM3600 from KHIND Starfish Foundation and total crowd funding RM450 were bank in to UMS account. In order to get a grant, sufficient document regarding the project need to be submitted. Due to some technical limitation in that time, the budget is not available to be released immediately.
Due to time limitation, to hinder the project to be postponed due to the budget constraint, our team managed to consult with the contractor to convince them to perform the work during the allocated schedule.
Despite to that shortage, we are grateful because the project implementation was performed as planned and successfully completed based on the scheduled and be able to turn this project into a reality.
II. Language or cultural barriers
During the implementation of the project, our team did not face any difficulty in communicating with the community in SMK Tebobon. Since they communicate using our national language which is Bahasa Malaysia. Moreover, they also could communicate and understand English. Since one of our team member and lecturer is from Bangladesh, thus, they had no problem with the language barriers for communication.
The community there largely consist of Muslims and Christian. All group members are well aware and informed of the Muslim and Christian customs and their culture, hence there was no issue on cultural barriers.
III. What worked well? What didn’t work well?
Each member gave their full commitment and enthusiasm from the start of the project until the implementation of it. Despite of the tight schedule, all members managed to contribute their effort and time in making sure all given task were done on time. The commitment shown from the team was very incredible and everyone was all focused and determined in making this project a success.
The community of SMK Tebobon, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah were among the key to the success of this project. The community welcomed the idea of implementing the project among them and without a doubt, accepted our approach
Despite the budget limitation, the project was successfully implemented accordingly with our desired design and perspective. All the initiatives were successfully performed because of the splendid cooperation from all members.
The only issue that needs to be highlighted throughout the project which led to several factors that did not work well is the financial issue due to the double handling from Bendahari UMS.
