World family meet’s eco-waste system hailed

The recent 4th World Meeting of Families initiated by Pope John Paul II is commendable for having included ecological waste management and ecological resource use in the conduct of the meeting, according to a leading re-manufacturer of used and empty inkjet and laserjet printer cartridges.

Norbert Grimm, president of Printing Images CtC Inc., noted the success in efforts to provide a system for ecologically depositing discards during the conference. This included the setting up of about 100 recycling stations with separate containers for biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes in each station.

The eco-organizers also assigned responsibility to each one within a one-square-meter space of the Rizal Park grounds to see to it that the space was free of litter. They also encouraged the use of non-disposable food utensils, designated guides and monitors to see to it that the rules were followed, and provided other such measures.

The eco-organizers were led by Caritas Manila and the Eco-waste Coalition led by the local office of the Global Anti-Incinerator Alliance/Global Alliance for Anti-Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Mother Earth Unlimited and the Zero Waste Recycling Movement of the Philippines Inc.

"The introduction of eco-waste management in the international meeting has attracted worldwide notice for the Philippines," Grimm said. "This should put the country in the expanding map of countries promoting recycling and ecological best practices."

"All over the world, there is an encouraging trend for re-use and recycling, including re-manufacturing which our company in Subic is a part of," he said.

Taiwan, Korea, Quebec and Ontario in Canada and Australia, he said, are among the countries that have laws promoting this trend. One such law is on Extend Producer Responsibility (EPR), which provides for reduced packaging of goods and proper recycling for discarded packaging.

Europe is also embarking on a comprehensive recycling and re-manufacturing strategy as it carries out this year its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

This directive encourages the design and production of electrical and electronic equipment in such a way that it will be easy to dismantle and re-use their parts.

European re-manufacturers fought hard to include printer cartridges in this directive, said Grimm, whose re-manufactured cartridges from empty inkjets and laserjets collected in the Philippines are sold all over Europe.

"The Philippines has an Ecological Solid Waste Management Law that needs only to be fully carried out," he said. "We are fully supportive of this law, of offering to buy all empty cartridges."

Printing Images can be reached at 047-2526012 (Subic), 047-2244526 (Olongapo City), 896-9639 or 896-9447 (Makati) or 0916-4315946 (Cebu).