Refills Save Landfills

Arnstein's (1969) ladder of participation reserves its highest rung to citizen control where all the decisions of a community development project are relegated to the community itself. With this in mind, we decided to involve MMS staff through the earliest stages of discussion; this is when the community there voiced an opinion to scale up the project -- i.e. to install a more expensive water filteration system capable of dispensing both hot and cold water. The original plan for the project envisioned the installation of a simple, relatively cheap water filteration system but this was modified to attempt to incorporate the community's expecations of the project. The MMS staff, including its leadership, pledged support during the following meetings and through involvemnet of the MMS recreational club (MRC), it was decided that all staff would show their support for the project by voluntarily donating 1-day's salary to the cause. To better facilitate this process and emp...

Introduction Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) is a common thermoplastic resin of the polyester family and is used to make film, shirts, fabrics and plastic bottles (Ji, 2013). Around 30% of the world’s PET production is used for bottling purposes, and this is because of the good clarity and inertness of the material (Ceretti et al., 2010). Additionally, the substance also does an excellent job of providing a physiochemical barrier to oxygen and carbon, preserving the life of the bottled content. In addition to water, PET is also used to retain carbonated drinks because of this barrier property. The beverages industry use PET bottles for its transparency, relative lightness and potential for recyclability. Such qualities have enabled the PET bottle to be the most popular form of containing beverages, especially drinking or mineralised water. Globally, it is estimated that a million bottles are purchased every minute and this figure is expected to rise by 20% in the next by 2021 (La...

Project timeline from Weeks I - XIV


MRC collected staff feedback before implementing the project Questionnaire Page 1 Questionnaire Page 2

MRC collected contribution from staff of MMS to install a water filter at MMS.

Citizen Control The project was handed over to the MRC of MMS on this week fulfilling the last rung on Arnstein's hierarchy.

Delegation Collecting staff feedback to contribute one day salary to MRC for the initial investment of the project. Meeting with the female staffers of MMS

Partnership  Developing partnership with MRC Caption for this image

Placation Communicating and negotiating with MRC to support the project

Consultation Developing SWOT analysis to identify the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and Threats of the MMS community water project. Other tasks that we managed to tackle during this week include: conducting water filter system second survey. collecting feedback from the staff. SWOT Analysis for the project. Logframe for the project.

During this week, we provided project information to the staff of MMS 

Manipulation and Therapy [

Insert Photo here] Conducting water filter system first survey  Providing project information to the staff of MMS Primary and secondary data were collected to asses the  situation of MMS MMS staff filling out survey forms Survey results

During the third week, we set out to: Developing project action plan Setting the project mission, goal and specific objectives Project Mission The mission of MMS Community Water Project (MMS CWP) is to have a zero usage of plastic water bottles in MMS by providing finest quality purified water through a water purifier system.  The MRC exist to provide adequate maintenance of the existing system to make sure that the quality of water by the water filter is up to the standard.  The MRC continue to conduct awareness among staff on reducing plastic wastes. Project Goals: Establishing a mechanism to have a zero plastic water bottles at MMS Project Objectives To have zero plastic water bottles at MMS by the end of December 2018. To reduce other plastic waste by 50% by the end of 2017. To create awareness among the staff in using plastic products, reduce the consumption and encourage their families and others to do the same.  Present condition Record...

This week, our group members further discussed the possible community projects that can be designed. We decided to conduct a community development programme at Maldives Meteorological Service (MMS) where a huge number of plastic waste was generated through PET water bottles. Primary data was collected to asses the current situation of MMS. Empty bottles stored in cabinets Waste bins packed with empty bottles Bottles everywhere We also held meeting with the management of MMS to obtain consent for establishing a water filter at MMS. Meeting with the management

On the first week of the project, after the initial round of planning discussions among the group members, we did a quick study and literature review on different various community development projects.