Conservation and recycling

At this point when the whole world is undergoing a seismic shift in political and trade relations, and it is also becoming clear where remaining natural resources are, countries like the Philippines should wake up and do an honest assessment of what strengths and resources we have in comparison to our global trading partners. Doing so is an absolute must so that our government can seriously address the need to conserve and recycle whatever remaining resources we have.

Even in the past, scrap metal has been a windfall for scrap dealers – and I know of a few who have made a fortune and even funded the education of their children who were able to build a better life. Remaining local steel manufacturers also depend on scrap metal as their alternative raw material due to the lack of locally produced iron ore, a resource that we, as a country, have lacked the foresight to capitalize on, hence, our lack of a strong steel industry.

This topic came to mind upon reading the recent endorsement by Toyota Motor Philippines Corp. (TMP) of Standard Insurance Co. Inc. as the second model End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) dismantling facility in the Philippines included in the ‘Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers Project.’

According to a press release of TMP, Standard Insurance’s ELV dismantling operations primarily handle vehicles insured under its portfolio, with an average of 850 vehicles dismantled annually at the company’s technical and training center in Naic, Cavite. The facility spans approximately 8,840 square meters and has a dismantling capacity of up to six units per day. Backed by an investment of P17.8 million, the initiative represents a major private sector involvement in appropriate vehicle life cycle management and circular economy.

According to TMP, ELV dismantling facilities serve as a vital foundation for building a circular economy in the automotive industry. Such facilities ensure that inoperable vehicles are processed responsibly, minimizing environmental impact by safely managing hazardous materials and maximizing resource recovery for reintroduction in the manufacturing cycle.

With two established dismantling facilities now operating in the country, the TMP statement said, the private sector beefed up the local capacity for responsible ELV management, supporting local sustainability efforts, while also addressing the climate-related risks posed by ELVs globally.

The TMP statement noted that Standard Insurance bolsters the Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers Project, being the fifth on its list in the Southeast Asian region. According to TMP president Masando Hashimoto, “Our collective efforts are a clear testament to our long-term commitment to carbon neutrality and establishing a recycling-based society and systems under the global Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050.”

The Toyota Global 100 Dismantlers Project is a worldwide initiative that seeks to establish proper ELV dismantling operations in different strategic locations around the world. Through this network, Toyota aims to address key environmental challenges such as pollution and resource depletion by promoting responsible disposal and recycling practices.

The Philippines, like most other countries in the world, has become a throw away society. The younger generation especially are not likely to reuse or repurpose items like the older generation. Hence, the popularity of fast fashion, with clothes, bags, shoes and accessories used and disposed of in one fashion season, to be replaced by the new “it” items. Unlike in the past, in my generation at least, where clothes were repaired or redesigned by our favorite “sastre” or dressmaker to reflect the new fashion trend.

Electronic items, more often than not nowadays, are thrown away because it is more convenient and sometimes cheaper to just buy a replacement than finding someone to repair the gadgets at a price that at times is almost the cost of a new item. One can notice in some malls electronic trash bins where customers can drop/discard their used batteries, electronic cords, keyboards or other electronic items that are no longer operational.

To be honest, as a journalist, I also have gone through a pile of electronic items – cellular phones, laptops, recorders, personal computers, television sets and so much more, that I have disposed of in various ways – mostly giving it away to household staff who want to gamble on the chance that the item(s) can still be repaired by someone they know, or perhaps they just sell it to a scrap dealer so that they earn some money out of the “throw away” item.

I admittedly did not care even as I read about where such electronic “trash” ends up, in countries like India, Pakistan or Bangladesh where there is a thriving business for dismantlers who harvest certain precious metal components that include gold and silver and rare earth metals. However, in the process of recovering some of the precious and rare earth metals, the workers have to use toxic chemicals that eventually affect their health.

But here’s the thing, we are now waking up to the reality that the world that we knew for decades, has changed and that the once abundant resources we had has been seriously depleted. We are also beginning to realize more keenly that the distribution of resources has not been similar for all nations. In the past it did not seem to matter because we all seemed to have a little of everything and some of the resources seemed endless or we did not seem to need them anyway, and thus were basically useless. Who even thought about rare earths, which is now the game-changer, something most countries don’t have or may have a smidgen of.

But the world has changed. What was once science fiction has become reality, artificial intelligence is now a reality that is fast evolving, and who knows in a couple of more decades, life as we know it now will be the reality that we once thought was a figment of imagination of some science-fiction writers.

The reality is now hitting and we need to address it by learning how to conserve and recycle our resources.