Waste not

A disembodied voice coming out of a megaphone called on everyone to bring out his or her recyclable waste. It was the first Friday of the month, the scheduled day for the collection of items like bottles, glass, tin cans, dry paper, carton, hard plastic, clean plastic bags, scrap metal and small pieces of wood and other materials that could still be recycled. I hoped the utility workers in the compound where I live segregated the garbage properly. I also felt a pang of guilt about not being more pro-active in these matters.

The homeowners’ association in the subdivision where I live has organized a Solid Waste Management Committee to comply with Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. The law provides the legal framework for the country’s systematic, comprehensive and ecological solid waste management program that shall ensure protection of public health and the environment. It underscores, among other things, the need to create the necessary institutional mechanisms and incentives, as well as imposes penalties for acts in violation of any of its provisions.

The board of the homeowners’ association has been tireless in its efforts to promote waste segregation. We have received several letters detailing how we are supposed to sort garbage and when a particular type of garbage was going to be collected. Residents were instructed to put residual waste such as plastic wrapper, soiled diapers and napkins, tetra pack and similar items in sealed plastic bags or bins and put them on the right side of their houses. In a separate container on the left side were to be placed compostable waste like vegetable and fruit peeling, bone, seed, leaf and grass. These are supposed to be collected every morning.

On the last Sunday of each month, special waste like tree trunks and branches and tree leaves in sacks and bags are collected. Once in a while, we get announcements that a waste market will be held inside the subdivision and items like batteries, tires, and old appliances can be sold or collected for disposal.

Based on studies made by the National Solid Waste Management Commission Secretariat based at the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, it is estimated that the daily per capita waste production in Metro Manila is 0.5 kg. This means that every person living in the metropolis generates half a kilo of waste a day.With an estimated population of 10.5 million, total waste generated in Metro Manila alone could run up to 5,250 metric tons per day. This means that 1.95 million metric tons of garbage are produced in Metro Manila every year.

Things are not much better in Cebu City. I came across a news article that said that the city produces 400 tons of garbage a day.

There are a lot of ideas for people to generate less garbage—use canvas bags instead of plastic bags in shops, have refilling stations for water, shampoo, liquid soap and other items stored in plastic bottles, recycle materials, compost waste, and just stop buying more stuff. There is more consciousness about this issue now but there is no sense of urgency in dealing with it.

Typhoon Ondoy showed us what happens to garbage that has nowhere to go—they stay with us and clog waterways and worsen flooding. With flooding aggravated by sea level rise brought about by climate change, it probably won’t be too long before we will have to live and move around in boats floating in a sea of garbage.

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