CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Situational Analysis

Who knows that a plastic bottle can put up in a good use, a floating

plastic bottle is the answer for a low budget life vest. It provides sufficient help

when a person falls into the water. It can save lives.

The growing waste from plastic is now a problem around the world.

National Geographical reported, Americans drink more bottled water than any

other nation, purchasing an impressive 29 billion bottles every year. The amount

of crude oil needed to manufacture those 29 billion bottles is 17 million barrels of

crude oil annually. That is equivalent to the fuel needed to keep one million

vehicles on the road for 12 months. The UN challenged citizens around the world

to pitch a life – changing idea to UN Secretary – General Ban Ki – moon.

Irresponsible garbage having hauling companies and the presence of open

dump sites near rivers are two reasons why the Philippines is among the world’s

top ocean polluters. Pia Ranada stated that the Philippines has among the

highest trash collection rates in Southeast Asia yet it’s the world’s 3 rd biggest

source of plastic leaking into the ocean. The study found that 74% of the plastics

leaking into the ocean from the Philippines comes from garbage that has already

been collected by haulers and garbage trucks. This amounts to 386,000 tons of

plastic trash. The second major source of leaked garbage after collection are
open dump sites which are typically near wat er ways and the fact that the

Philippines is an archipelagic country and with an elaborate network of rivers

does not help matters.

One of the problem here in La Union are the plastics that are improperly

disposed. People tend to throw their garbage anywhere, that causes pollution.

Some areas in La Union have already provided trashcans that are labeled with

BIODEGRADABLE and NON-BIODEGRADABLE but people still don’t know the

proper waste segregation.

La Union is a province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in the

island of Luzon. Its capital is the city of San Fernando, which also serves as the

regional center of the whole Ilocos Region.

The province is bordered by Ilocos Sur to the north, Benguet to the

east, Pangasinan to the south and to the west by the shores of the South China

Sea (West Philippine Sea). La Union has 20 municipalities. One of the

municipalities of La Union is San Juan. San Juan is well known to be the Surfing

Capital of The North. However, there are many drowning accidents happening.

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Framework of the study

According Nutifood (2017), a local nutrition brand established to provide

first-class nutrition to those in the middle and primarily lower income groups. As

a responsible corporate citizen, Nutifood has in their previous CSR programs

donated supplies during the floods, and actively played its role in reducing plastic

waste into the environment. This year, Nutifood combined its two CSR efforts

into one. They came up with an inexpensive innovative idea that combined

Nutifood’s two CSR efforts into one. They produced the Plastic Bottle Life Vest.

The Plastic Bottle Life Vests help save lives during the flood seasons, and each

vest uses 12 empty 500ml plastic bottles for flotation. With every 1,000 life

vests, we helped reuse 12,000 plastic bottles.

According to Martinez RE, Go JJ and Guevarra J. Epidemiology of

drowning deaths in the Philippines (2016) Drowning is the process of

experiencing respiratory impairment from submersion/immersion in liquid. It is a

serious and neglected public health threat that claims the lives of 372 000 people

per year worldwide. It is the third leading cause of unintentional injury death,

accounting for 7% of all injury-related deaths. More than 90% of these deaths

occur in low- and middle-income countries. In the Philippines, there were 3044

reported deaths due to drowning in 2010. The profile of drowning deaths is

expected to vary significantly across the Philippines since the country has diverse

hazards, population densities and levels of development.

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 From 2005-2014, there were an average of 3,536 fatal unintentional

drownings (non-boating related) annually in the United States — about ten

deaths per day. An additional 332 people died each year from drowning in

boating-related incidents. About one in five people who die from drowning are

children 14 and younger. For every child who dies from drowning, another five

receive emergency department care for nonfatal submersion injuries. More than

50% of drowning victims treated in emergency departments (EDs) require

hospitalization or transfer for further care (compared with a hospitalization rate

of about 6% for all unintentional injuries). These nonfatal drowning injuries can

cause severe brain damage that may result in long-term disabilities such as

memory problems, learning disabilities, and permanent loss of basic functioning

(e.g., permanent vegetative state).

As stated by Jeninah Jativa (2014) plastic bottles can be an alternative

source of life jacket which is comparable to the usual life jacket. Considering the

availability of plastic bottles preferably 1.5 Liter of bottles and the exact mixture

of household components such as baking soda and vinegar to yield carbon

dioxide. Plastic Bottles as Life Vest float and was able to carry heavier weights

that the usual life jacket made up of Styrofoam.

As stated by Niharika Sanyal (2014) 11-year olds from India designed

Zero-Cost Life Jackets Using Plastic Bottles. Disturbed that fishermen die at sea

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every day because they cannot afford safety gear, these boys from a

government school in Tamil Nadu designed a cost-efficient life jacket out of

waste plastic bottles. The project won the ‘Boldest Idea’ award at the ‘I CAN

Awards 2014’ organized by Design for Change.

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Research Paradigm

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Statement of the Problem

This study aims to determine the effectiveness and benefits of the

alternative life vest (plastic bottles)

1. What is the level of effectiveness of the Plastic Bottle Life Vest

to the users in San Juan La Union?

2. What is the extent of necessity of the Plastic Bottle Life Vest to

the users in San Juan La Union?

3. What is the extent of contribution of the plastic Bottle Life Vest

to the users in San Juan La Union?

Hypothesis

These are the hypothesis brought in this study:

1. The level of effectiveness of the Plastic Bottle Life Vest in San Juan La

Union is high.

2. The extent of necessity of the PBLV to the users from San Juan, La Union

is highly needed.

3. The extent of contribution of PBLV to the users in San Juan is excellent

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Significance of the Study

This study will convince every one of us that plastic bottles is not just a

container or waste material in the trash bin but it can actually save lives. This

study also convinced us to recycle plastic bottles in many ways like making life

vest, instead of the industrial ones.

Plastic bottle life vest is perfect for thrifty people. Swimmers, surfers,

lifeguards, fishermen or all of us will benefit in this "Plastic Bottle Life Vest", we

can use it anytime and it is cheaper than the other life vests.

 Fisherman: The benefits of the Plastic Bottle Life Vest to the fishermen

are, they can take it whenever they want to go when they are fishing. It

can help them survive when they are stranded in the middle of the sea.

 Tourist: The benefits of Plastic Bottle Life Vest to the tourist are, they will

attract tourists to try these vests and for them to have knowledge on what

plastic bottle can do.

 Community: Plastic Bottle Life Vest can easily made by everyone in our

community because it is more inexpensive to create.

 Environment: Recycling plastic bottles can lessen the plastic garbage’s

and decreasing the causes of pollution in our communities.

 Swimmers: Plastic Bottle Life Vest may become beneficial and helpful to

swimmers in case of accidents like drowning.

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 Lifeguards: Plastic Bottle Life Vest may also become beneficial and

helpful especially to lifeguards because they can use it in case of

emergencies.

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Scope and Delimitation

The focused on the use of plastic bottle as life vest which involved a

sample of community people of San Juan La Union. One of the surfing capital of

North Luzon reported cases of drowning accident. The participant of this study

will include Fishermen, Tourist and the main respondent of this study.

Plastic bottle as life vest will not only benefit to the community’s safety

but also decrease the number of waste material generated in the community.

This study was undertaken during the school year 2017-2018 and is

concentrated only on the areas when a student we’re directly involved.

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Definition of terms

Drowning - Is a tragedy involving human error and the environment at the sea.

Life Vest – Is used to float on water. Making an improvised Life Vest is the main

goal of our study.

PBLV – Plastic Bottle Life Vest, our main output and at the same time our final

product.

Plastic Bottles – Plastic bottles are the main material we used in making the

PBLV.

Rope – We used rope to tie the plastic bottles together and ensure that the

plastic bottles were well-tightened.

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 CHAPTER II

METHODOLOGY

Population and Locale of the Study

San Juan is well known to be the surfing capital of the North. Due to its

nice view a lot of tourist visited San Juan just to try the cool waves of it. As of

2018, San Juan has 49,135 population. Composed of 41 barangays.

The researchers interviewed 20 people randomly in San Juan. The

researchers have chosen them because they know that they have the credibility

to give the appropriate answer that the researchers are looking for, which suit in

their topic.

Data Gathering Tools

In this study, the researchers used survey questionnaires. Answering the

questions in the questionnaires help the researchers to know the answer and

opinions of their respondents. The researchers also interviewed them using their

smart phones and used it to record the other questions, opinions and answer of

their respondents. The researchers observed and took some clips on what is

happening while the respondents tried the Plastic Bottle Life Vest.

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Data Gathering Procedures

A. General Gathering Procedures

The student researchers were asked permission from their school principal for

them to conduct an interview outside the school grounds through a letter. After

granted the permission, the researchers set the day of the interview. On the day

of the interview, the researchers were prepared a recorder, ball pen and the

survey questionnaires for the respondents and lastly the researchers settled their

closing remarks and thanked the participants.

B. Creating Plastic Bottle Life Vest

Prepare four 1.5 or 1.75 empty bottles. Get the rope and make simple slip knots.

Tie three bottles together horizontally for your back. Allow sufficient rope to the

remaining bottle vertically for your chest. Adjust the rope so that all the bottles

are tight on your body. Put glowing tapes on and around the bottles so that it

will glow at night.

Treatment of Data

The data that was gathered was used in a proper way. The researchers

kept every single detail that they gathered. All the data’s is exclusive for the

researchers and it will serve as a guide for future purposes.

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REFERENCES

 Recycling Today Staff (2015) Study forecasts increase in plastic bottle

recycling. Retrieved from http://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/study-

increase-plastic-bottle-recycling/ on November 16, 2017.

 Dinh-dinh & ThatchThao Nguyen (2016) Plastic Bottle Life Vest. Retrieved

from https://www.behance.net/gallery/26457315/Plastic-Bottle-Life-Vest/

on November 17, 2017.

 Franklyn (2016) Plastic Bottle Life Vest. Retrieved from

http://adcglobal.org/awards/adc-tomorrow-awards/shortlist/plastic-bottle-

life-vest/ on November 18, 2017.

 Niharika Sanyal (2017) TBI Blogs: After Fishermen Deaths, 11-year-olds

from TM Designed Zero-Cost Life Jackets Using Plastic Bottles. Retrieved

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waste-plastic-bottles/ on November 18, 2017

 Niennahjativa (2014) Platic Bottles as Life Vest. Retrieved from

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 Niharika Samyal (2017) TBI Blogs: After Fishermen Deaths, 11-Year-Olds

from TN Designed Zero-Cost Life Jackets Using Plastic Bottles. Retrieved

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 from https://www.thebetterindia.com/104327/protect-lives-life-jackets-

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 Alma E. Nacua, Marlon Dominguez, Nenita O Santos (2016) Rescue Boat

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2016/Alma%20E.%20Nacua,%20et%20al.pdf on November 19, 2017.

 Janak Mistry (2010) Float-on : A Low Cost Life Jacket Made of PET

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https://inhabitat.com/springgreening/2010/05/20/float-on-a-low-cost-life-

jacket/ on November 19, 2017.

 Peter S Green (2015) The Life of a Plastic Water Bottle. Retrieved from

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plastic-water-bottle on November 19, 2017.

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OXFAM Hong Kong (2018) ONE look - INDIA: Where Plastic Bottles Become Life

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2018.

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