SR&C–An Earth Day Mantra

My housekeeper Rita was fuming mad the other week. She reported that our neighbors were doing it all wrong: their compost pit was too shallow, and they bury the basura still wrapped in plastic bags. "Ang dali-dali, bakit hindi naman nila makuha," she sniffed.

Rita is extremely gung-ho about composting because it produces nutrient-rich soil for all the plants she cares for not just in our garden but in the vacant lots fronting and adjacent to our house. The frontage of those two lots have been landscaped with flowering shrubs and ornamentals "evicted" from our garden, already cluttered with second- and third-generation offspring and cuttings from the original plants. Deeper inside the empty lots are various aromatic and medicinal herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. She used to have a vegetable patch in a vacant lot in the next block, but that had to stop when construction on a house began there late last year.

The sight of ever growing piles of garbage disgusts us, but apparently not enough to compel us to practise zero waste management: SR&C–segregate, recycle and compost. The truism that waste need not become garbage seems to be lost on a populace that thinks nothing of tossing a cigarette butt or candy wrapper out the car window onto the street or sidewalk. Whatever happened to the rule that garbage not segregated will not be collected?

It takes effort and discipline to practise zero waste management–not that much effort really, but a lot of discipline. It took a while, for example, to convince Rita about the merits of composting–she didn’t like the idea of rotting garbage and she didn’t believe it would turn to soil–but now she religiously segregates compostable waste. And the rest of us had better cooperate or we get an earful from her.

Waste management through segregating, recycling and composting is not a gimmick or a fad. It is simple and sound household management, and it starts with a deliberate decision to be a part of the solution to our mounting garbage problem. It will also help if we were not so careless and profligate, if we used our resources–be it food, paper, water or whatever–wisely and responsibly.

Whether the Jancom incinerator project pushes through or not, it is imperative that we lessen our garbage. If we keep throwing things we will one day find ourselves buried in an avalanche of trash, and there won’t be a landfill big enough to dump it all in.

Happy Earth Day!