EDITORIAL – Giant dumps

You can’t blame them for trying, and perhaps their call might even be heeded by some people. Environmental advocates are urging the public not to turn cemeteries into dumpsites when the nation remembers the dead this coming week. The Eco Waste Coalition is asking people to bring their trash home, or else place the waste in containers for easier cleanup in cemeteries. If possible, the garbage should be segregated for recycling purposes.

The proposal is sound, but it’s bound to be ignored by most Filipinos. Except in some exclusive villages, garbage segregation schemes in this country have failed. Only households with environmentalists or avid gardeners bother with composting. People complain about the cost of garbage bags and the hassle of training household members to put different types of garbage in separate containers. Outside their homes, many Filipinos have grown used to discarding their trash anywhere. Indiscriminate garbage disposal is one of the biggest causes of flooding in Metro Manila and other urban centers.

If the public ignores the plea of the environmentalists, operators of cemeteries can do their part by providing enough garbage bins around gravesites. Filipinos will start trooping to cemeteries as early as today; the visits can last up to a week. Local governments must take charge of cleanliness programs during the observance of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day.

The call for proper waste disposal must continue beyond the days of the dead. It will take time before attitudes change and it becomes a Filipino habit to avoid indiscriminate disposal even of cigarette butts. The attitude change can be helped along by installing more garbage bins in public places. This could be a problem in the age of terrorism. But even without garbage bins, terrorists can easily find other places to hide bombs. Cleanliness must not be a casualty of the war on terror.

People wary of garbage bins in public places can always heed the environmentalists’ call and bring their own trash containers when they visit the graves of their dearly departed. Turning cemeteries into giant dumps dishonors the dead.