‘Waste retrievers’ sustain recycling system

Recycling is becoming a sustainable, profitable and respectable industry. It is sustainable because of the continuing generation of resources, normally considered waste, to feed the industry. It has become profitable as well as respectable because there are more and more creative and affordable options for recycling as science and technology advance, and the public is becoming more environmentally and ecologically conscious.

Since much of these resources are found in the waste stream originating from households, communities and establishments, resource retrieval is the first step in recycling, and also its sustaining activity.

The popular image in the country of "waste retrievers" are the cart-pushing collectors for junk shops and waste pickers in dumpsites, but there are other categories in this business and more and more of them are getting organized and upgraded. The Zero Kalat sa Kaunlaran or ZKK, in fact, has won for the country the First Asian Waste Management Excellence Award given in Kuala Lumpur in November last year.

Another remarkable example of waste collection of international stature, so to speak, involves the collection of empty inkjet cartridges used to remanufacture quality inkjet cartridges for the international market, but there is surely an emerging demand from the local market. This promises more business for Jay and Edna de la Paz who head the Manila collection center of Printing Images CtC Inc. with headquarters at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone (047-2526012, 0916-3053244).

Based in Makati (895-4994), the couple used to be employees of a company that recycles laser jet cartridges. One day, a co-worker offered to buy their empty inkjet cartridges and soon they found out that a company in Subic was buying these empties for a higher price because it was also remanufacturing these items. Today, the couple has a network of 20 "solid collectors" under Printing Images, in key areas nationwide.

As ordinary employees, Edna and Jay had been up to their necks paying the installments on their credit cards, medicines for their child with asthma, and for so many other everyday expenses. Today, not only are they much better off, they have also helped a good number of other couples and individuals, such as Yuri and Lyn Garcia of Parañaque (825-9381) who have likewise given up their previous work, because all their expenses are now covered by this remarkable collection business.

Regina Vasquez, Edna’s niece, and her boyfriend, Reginald Gallardo, received only minimum wage rates as part of the service crew of a multinational fast-food chain. Now they are renting a good space for their future nest. Regina’s parents, Danilo (Edna’s brother) and Noemi (718-2023), have enough money to send all their children to school without interruptions and one of them, Dhaniel (0917-2706188) also has his own collection center along Quezon Avenue. Ricky Pinulan (535-2223), forced to resign from a bank after an accident, is earning much more and is much happier knocking on doors for those precious empties. Ronald Villareal (854-7702) is paying for his college education and for much of his family’s expenses and debts, including the mortgage on their house and lot in a modest subdivision. Joey Javier (436-4275), who a week ago, was just a part-timer, has now decided to go full time collecting empty inkjet cartridges.