A college degree in Garbology will most likely repel parents. It not only stinks, since it has the smell of trash, but it’s also not the kind of educational attainment a son or daughter will take pride in.

You may laugh all you want but a B.S. degree in Garbology could land your son or daughter a good slot in the profitable Waste and Recycling Industry, a job that can command a monthly pay scale ranging from $40,000 to $100,000 a year in the U.S.

It could have any of these job titles: Waste Management Specialist, Environmental Engineer, Waste Treatment Plant Operator, or Recycling Coordinator. If you’ve never heard of these uncommon job titles, you’ll soon be hearing them more and more as the world transitions to the new Green Economy.

First, what is Garbology anyway?

Simply stated, Garbology involves scientific study of what to do with our human trash and waste. Garbology graduates will play a vital role in finding better ways not just to manage our waste, but to stop the creation of it in the first place. The ultimate goal is not to study waste per se but to make zero waste.

Imagine your son inventing new and revolutionary ideas for upcycling discards, such as for example, fruit and vegetable peelings, used plastic toys, computer parts, batteries, and other throwaways. Envision your daughter working in a lab growing a type of bacteria that eats styrofoam or plastics.

Think of the positive impact. If we have enough garbologists, we will prevent tons and tons of garbage from reaching our designated landfills, many of which are now reaching their full capacities. It’s not just plastics but textile and metal waste. Not to mention food and chemical waste.

The garbologist will be at the center of the waste and recycling industry which operates on an enormous scale, touching nearly every sector of the economy. Because of that scope, the job and career options in this growing industry are unusually diverse, with real opportunities to build a career, whether you stay on the operational side or move into management over time.

This is all good to know, but…. but. Where can one enroll for such a course? No college or university offers a 4-year degree in Garbology. In its single-minded focus on more “appealing” courses to corner as many paying students as possible, our college educational system has been caught napping as businesses have been shifting to economic circular models of production and disposal of materials.

The truth is garbologists are just one of the group of specialists now urgently needed in the Green Economy. Global demand for workers with green know-how rose by 11.6% over the last year, whereas the supply of such workers only rose by 5.6%.

What is alarming is that we are not producing skilled green workers fast enough to enable a full-speed transition to a green economy. If the world doesn’t start educating and training enough manpower in big numbers, it is estimated that by 2050, the target year for achieving universal zero carbon, roughly half of jobs in the green economy will lack qualified workers.

This is why degrees related to environmental protection like Garbology are no laughing matter.

Our national leadership must wake up. It should take immediate steps not only to make the teaching of climate education urgent and imperative at all levels, it must also make the offering of new specialized green courses mandatory in our current college education system at the soonest possible time.

To address this green demand, traditional courses must be recalibrated, repurposed or re-invented to make them responsive to the needs of green manufacturing practices and building codes.

Architecture will need to shift to green architecture. Engineering will need to become oriented to the needs of the circular economy in which production and manufacturing will be geared to achieving zero waste. Even accounting and business management courses will need to integrate environmental and social costs and benefits into traditional financial reporting.

But more importantly, new courses in special ecology-related fields will have to be designed and new curricula will have to be developed.

Garbology should be one of the first green courses to be offered in college. Why? Because before anything, humankind must first prevent earth from becoming a planet wasteland.

To make it palatable to parents and prospective students, let’s give Garbology a more appealing name: Skupidiology, derived from “skupidia,” the Greek word for garbage or rubbish. Whatever name you call it, the scientific study of garbage is where we should start. It is a game changer, the ideal gateway for new green courses in college.

Happily, most young people are now eco-aware, especially the college educated Gen Zees. In one recent survey, they rightly see the worsening climate crisis as a threat to human existence. More than half of (61%) want to work in a green job in the next 5 years.

But beyond the demand and attractive pay, one compelling reason for young people to pursue a green course in college is to take an active part in the universal mission to rescue our future.

Whether you like a hands-on approach or prefer working at a desk, you can choose a green career path based on the environmental impact you wish to make. Whether you’re a student of garbology, renewable energy, environmental engineering, wildlife biology or meteorology, consider yourself arrayed with tomorrow’s green heroes.

If I may add, there is one subject I like to be basic in any green curriculum. This is the anthropology of traditional climate resilient practices.  I read in one of the columns of Gideon Lasco sometime in 2022 about a panel that discussed “Indigenous notions and practices in calamities” in a conference of national association of anthropologists, held in Boac, Marinduque. Let us learn to harness local knowledge and practice to cope with all kinds of climate hazards and natural calamities.

As stands now, life on earth hangs on a balance. We can’t afford to dilly dally. So parents, universities, industries, government, let’s get our act together to provide an army of green-educated human power for our planet’s survival.

Let’s heed the call of Kathleen Rogers, President of EARTHDAY.ORG: “We have to skill-up Generation Z now, starting with the teaching of climate education in all schools globally. It doesn’t matter what motivates us to do this, be it giving them job security, growing industry or saving the planet, pick your reason – but we should be doing it regardless.”

Garbology degree for your son or daughter? By all means, yes! It’s the best investment you can make as a parent, not only for your child’s future, but the world’s as well. 

The header shows a rear view of a college graduate and the Payatas landfill in Quezon City. (photo: Chae Won Cha)

About the author:

NICK TAYAG is a long-retired former advertising creative director. His column,” My Sixty Zen’s Worth” is published every Saturday on Business Mirror. It is his platform for sharing the little distilled wisdom he’s accumulated through the years. He hopes to inspire his fellow seniors to lead a more lively, productive, reflective and meaningful life in the last chapter of their individual life stories.