Echiverri said the Environmental Sanitation Services disseminated the garbage bin sets to the city’s public and private elementary and secondary schools, universities, and city hall offices.
He said the local government will not stop its efforts with the recent achievement as he wants Caloocan to be a zero-waste area by 2007.
He said the city is now the second highest ranking among the local governments complying with the Republic Act 9003, or the Solid Waste and Ecological Management Act.
The mayor said the city’s efforts to strictly comply with the implementation of the law paid off after it was rated with a 63.26 percent compliance as of March 30, 2006.
Aside from Caloocan, among the top-rating compliant cities were Marikina, Muntinlupa, and Quezon City.
Before Echiverri was elected mayor of the city, Caloocan was the second lowest ranking local government when it came to compliance to RA 9003.
He advocates waste segregation as the waste management system in the city more than incineration and land fill as these were harmful to the environment.
The mayor said segregation is the most effective waste management system as it reduces the garbage disposed by the residents through recycling and re-use.
He said incineration or burning the garbage has bad effects in the air while landfills or burying unsegregated waste on the ground is not good for the soil.
The mayor said this is the reason he pushed for the construction of a materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in different areas in Caloocan.
He said MRFs systematically segregate wastes and find another use for it through two components — the ecology garden and eco-shed.
Biodegradable waste like left-over food are brought to the ecology garden where the compost is made while bottles, plastics and others are taken to the eco-shed or storehouse where rinsed non-biodegradable waste for recycling and selling to factories are temporarily kept.