Presidential bets urged to address waste problem

MANILA, Philippines - Environmental advocates under the EcoWaste Coalition are urging presidential candidates to champion the cause of zero waste and the implementation of the Solid Waste Management Act.

“We hope that the next president will prioritize the enforcement of RA 9003, inspire the nation to embrace zero waste and halt the wasteful, climate-damaging and costly practice of littering, dumping and burning discards,” said Rei Panaligan, coordinator of EcoWaste.

“The next president should see to it that the 1,234 dumpsites all over the country will be closed, cleaned up, rehabilitated and replaced with community-centered ecology centers or materials recovery facilities,” said Romy Hidalgo, head of the coalition’s task force on dumps/landfills.

EcoWaste volunteers wore masks of the 10 presidential hopefuls in an action outside the Department of Environment and Natural Resources compound yesterday to mark the 9th anniversary of the signing of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

The advocates urged candidates “to lead the country out of wastefulness by putting into action a national strategy based on zero waste.”

This concept, the advocates said, “seeks to eliminate wasting and ensure the full and beneficial use of resources in order to restore ecological balance and provide for the needs of all people.”

The group explained that this is “anchored on waste prevention, volume and toxicity elimination or reduction, segregation at source, reusing, recycling and composting, and not on costly and polluting landfills and incinerators.”

The advocates cited the waste situation in the country manifested by low public awareness (27 percent) of Republic Act 9003; the existence of 838 open dumps and 396 controlled dumps in the country based on 2009 data; having only 6,141 materials recovery facilities in the country; and the positioning of sanitary landfills in watersheds and protected areas.      –Reinir Padua