Zero waste women

Marinela “Badjie” Trinidad grew up with a mother like Annie Pascual-Guerrero, who is a zero waste advocate. When I asked Badjie where Annie’s zero waste ideas came from, she simply said that’s how families lived during her time growing up. Annie had five siblings and a family of eight had to make both ends meet by conservation and practical means. Thus, Annie grew up picking vegetables from their backyard and would have much loose change left after being sent to market, because she used what grew around the house which came free. First lesson: eat local.

Next, Annie would not throw out anything until she was convinced there was no use for it anymore. Otherwise, if it could still be used, it stays. My own mother was probably Annie’s sister from another mother. My Mom would reuse aluminum pie plates as dog feeding bowls. She could find a use for most anything before throwing anything away. I remember she bought empty cloth sacks because they came in floral prints. She would ask our cousin to make them into dusters which me and my sisters could use. For us, it was normal to see our mom be smart about food (ground beef could be spaghetti sauce, omelet and a Chinese dish with black beans) to feed a brood of eight children. Second lesson: be practical.

The lifestyle Annie raised her kids with prompted her to share this idea with other mothers, who could now also be hired as “Super Manangs” or cooks for families needing extra help in the kitchen.

Super Manangs is an advocacy of Annie Pascual-Guerrero, founder of Center for Culinary Arts (CCA-Manila). It is just one of the many causes she has embraced, along with being a pioneer of the Zero Waste Movement.

She teaches cooking to mothers who can learn skills and be employed as “super cooks” – sometimes turning out 40 dishes from just a few local ingredients. More than just cooking a dish, she espouses Green Chefmanship, which ensures that food is local, healthy and easy to do. Manang is the local term for anyone older (manang is Ilocano for older sister) and mothers who join her program become skilled in cooking, kitchen budgeting, culinary math, food safety and whatever it takes to be a super woman.

Annie has done this in many communities, to as far north as Candon, Ilocos Sur as well as urban places like Quezon City. Even in their own village she holds sessions where cooks are taught to have less garbage, practice good culinary habits, use local ingredients and be practical in running a household.

Annie raised her children in the same fashion her parents did – to be frugal, be minimalist and be conscious of not wasting food and stuff. She is the original recycler, reuser and reducer, making sure her kids left a plate devoid of any wasted food. “Clean plates,” as her daughter Marinela “Badjie” Guerrero-Trinidad remembers. They had to finish all the food they got and left the table with no leftovers on their plates.

Badjie taught her daughter Bea (now third generation CCA director) the same things Annie taught her and this makes CCA a special school that was practising sustainability way before it became a buzzword. Graduates of CCA are recognized for their “green” ways by their employers and Badjie takes pride in knowing that her mother’s lessons did not go unnoticed.

In the Guerrero household, Badjie grew up with “reduce, reuse, recycle” in her consciousness even if her mother did not say anything to preach that gospel. She just lived that lifestyle, naturally, and the children took after her. It was the way to do things – not a trend but a lifestyle.

Annie apparently has written many books and manuals on zero waste, waste segregation and similar topics – the copies of which are still being used as classroom materials in CCA.

Badjie makes sure that CCA keeps the ethos Annie started – on sustainability and on using local ingredients. That is why it was easy to get the CCA students involved in the recent Terra Madre Asia Pacific in Bacolod, where the students were exposed to more local ingredients, cooking without waste and everything CCA believes in. It was a good fit to have CCA and Slow Food, basing it from Badjie’s experience in their own homes, growing up with her mother Annie.

It would be nice to have more Super Manangs trained as Annie does and to give them employment as “zero waste” cooks. We can get villages and small communities to give “stay at home” mothers or returning OFWs another skill they can earn a living from.

In these days of “fast food” and “fast fashion” where everything is disposable, I am sure there is a place for advocates of zero waste where everything is reused, recycled or reduced. If Annie could do it, Badjie and Bea following suit, I am sure every family can learn a thing or two from their experience.

How does a senior retiree not retire? Take it from Annie. Even if Badjie has already taken the reins at CCA, Annie, in the meantime, still wants to write and to keep teaching people what she has always wanted to share: ZERO WASTE. She keeps herself busy training more Super Manangs, and never tires advocating for a cause she has practised and advocated from her younger years.

What I admire about these three generations of women is how the practice of zero waste has been passed on from one generation to the next, and through their schools and the succeeding generations of their students. Now, that’s a true legacy you can witness while you are still around.

Kudos to Annie, Badjie and Bea – the zero waste women through generations. This Women’s Month, we honor these women and another “garbage queen” Olive Puentespina who has taught me how to do it at home. I have two pails for compost which alternately are unloaded into our compost pile at the farm. I have reduced my house food waste to a mere tenth of what it used to be. You can do it, too. Live a zero waste life.