Abstract

This research aims to assess the solid waste management (SWM) of students within and beyond the campus walls through the lens of their awareness, practices, and the factors that influence such awareness. A descriptive non-experimental research design was adopted using the Solid Waste Management Awareness and Practices Questionnaire (SWMAPQ) developed by Molina and Catan (2021), serving as the main research instrument for the study. The population consists of 1,428 high school students from Holy Family Academy (HFA) with stratified random sampling used to choose a sample of 303 with a 95% confidence level. The collected data was analyzed through measuring the means and standard deviations of each question by the software Microsoft Excel. The results revealed that most students are aware of the multiple facets of solid waste management and the school policies that govern such, and capable of practicing SWM both inside and outside the HFA, with minimal differences in their scores in SWM practices. Moreover, among factors such as peer-to-peer interaction, school policies, social media, and household practices, the latter is the leading source of SWM awareness among students. This study also found that there is no significant relationship between awareness and practices nor difference between practices conducted inside and outside the school. Overall, this study demonstrates that HFA students contribute to proper SWM whether they are in school or at home, signifying a great sense of responsibility in taking care of the environment.