DENR allots P50 M for public schools’ trash-for-cash initiative

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has allocated P50 million for the implementation of a program in which students from public schools take the initiative and receive tangible benefits such as cash and school supplies for their recycling efforts.

This developed after the DENR and the Department of Education (DepEd) partnered with the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) for the implementation of the National Ecosavers Program (NEP) in more than 1,500 municipalities all over the country.

DENR Secretary Ramon Paje representing NEP partner agencies, recently signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the LMP, represented by its president Mayor Donato Marcos of Paombong, Bulacan, to set in motion a nationwide “trash-for-cash” initiative.

“The agreement will serve as a blueprint for upscaling the NEP to the national level to ensure its institutionalization and sustainability down to the municipal level,” Paje said.

The NEP was first implemented in 742 public elementary and secondary schools in the National Capital Region in the hope of reducing some 8,000 tons of garbage collected every year from schools and homes in the metropolis.

Paje explained that participating students were each issued an Ecosavers Club Passbook, which contains the equivalent points they receive for whatever they recycle. “They either get school supplies or cash in exchange for the recyclables they turn in to their schools. Selected recyclers and junk shops pick up the recyclable materials,” he said.

The DENR is the agency in charge while the DepEd trains the teachers and principals in the particulars of the program.

Paje told local executives that NEP is a venue for them to play out their roles in the enforcement of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, “with immediate benefits for public school students, especially in poor municipalities.”

He said the agreement places a strong emphasis on the role of municipal mayors in ensuring NEP’s sustainability and institutionalization on a national scale by way of legislative and operational support in the local level.

Under the MOA, the DENR will mobilize its regional officers at the provincial down to the municipal level for the promotion of the NEP, and will train municipal executives in charge of implementing the NEP within their respective localities.

The DepEd, on the other hand, will activate all its division superintendents throughout the country to conduct NEP trainings and informational campaign efforts in coordination with their DENR and LMP counterparts.

The division superintendents are also tasked to issue circulars to all public elementary and secondary schools for NEP’s implementation.