Treasured waste

It’s numbing to think that a small town of just under 85,000 people can produce so much garbage in one day–35 metric tons.

It is therefore quite a feat that the municipality of Los Baños, nestled along the shorelines of Laguna Lake and the northern foothills of Mt. Makiling, can manage its trash effectively and make good use of it. All it takes is ingenuity and determination.

"I don’t think a dumpsite has ever looked so clean," declares a proud Mayor Caesar Perez as he leads STARweek on a tour of the near-spotless surroundings. Waste material is segregated and placed inside green metal sheaths. But it is the unexpected presence of plant life inside the one-hectare site that makes it all the more impressive.

The mayor circles around a particular area as if hunting for buried treasure, and comes to a pause. He repeatedly thumps his foot on the reddish soil. "I’m looking for a hollow spot," he smiles. "This used to be a sea of rubbish, kaya tinambakan namin ito ng lupa. It’s only four inches deep, so we’re technically still walking on trash. Pero you can’t see it."

Although explaining Perez’s waste management program may sound a little dry, the process is an interesting one. No later than 10 a.m. everyday, a dozen dump trucks go around Los Baños to collect trash. Collection is scheduled: biodegradable on Mondays to Fridays and non-biodegradable on Saturdays. Each truck is equipped with large drums for bio- and non-biodegradable materials. "Para pag-dating nila dito sa tambakan, naka-separate na yun. Tapos bagsak nalang sila ng bagsak," Perez explains.

The biodegradables are placed in a makeshift shredder which, Perez says, has had several modifications over the years.

"Ngayon, yung isang half-size drum na basura, mga 10 seconds lang ang shredding. Hindi pwedeng mabagal. Aangal ang makina kapag walang laman." The shredder runs on a second-hand car engine and is hardly a model for advanced technology, but it does what it needs to do.

Perez moves on to what he calls the presser, and holds up a large, picture frame-like compression of tin cans.

Everything–from the trucks’ hydrolics to the machines’ trays–are made from scrap material.

Expectedly, the entire cost of rehabilitating the site was low, although Perez declines to reveal the exact amount.

"The program is running smoothly naman, eh," he says. "Although medyo kapos kami sa budget, we are still continuing to improve this place. Tuloy-tuloy pa rin ang new ideas namin."

One of these "new ideas", according to Leo Pantuwa, executive assistant to the mayor, is an alternative pond which adds more air into composting pens to dry up the garbage juices much faster.

Except for the unmistakable stench, the dumpsite, now called The Ecological Waste Processing Center, looks like an under-developed garden with healthy blooms and produce–definitely a far cry from its smokey, smoldering past.

By the late 1990s, the 20-year-old dumpsite started to affect at least six of the town’s 14 barangays. More than an eyesore in a scenic town, it threatened the community with ill health and negative environmental effects.

The mayor pushed for an ordinance on waste management and anti-littering. It became his flagship project, focused on community-wide multi-sectoral participatory strategies to inculcate discipline and responsibility–from local officials to his constituents.

Through massive information campaigns (including a documentary on solid waste management practices), deputizing volunteer enforcers and organizing cultural forums, different sectors and local and foreign groups eventually supported the program through donations.

Perez believes that garbage problems don’t arise from the dumpsite, but from the source itself–the people. So he placed the responsibility back on the citizenry–to segregate their garbage. Failure to do so earns violators a fine–and a court case if even that is ignored.

This firmness resulted in citizens diligent ab out waste segregation, backyard and cluster composting, waste reduction and recycling.

Added incentive comes from the fact that something useful comes out of trash and people can earn a little extra cash. "We pay people P4 for every kilo of plastic waste they collect," the mayor reveals. Biodegradablkes are turned into compost and fertilizer. "Kaya marami kaming tanim dito sa center dahil diyan," he says with pride.

Flowers, wild plants and vegetables like papayas, lettuce and eggplant grow extremely well in the place–as if the dumpsite had always been intended for a great harvest. The crops, in fact, look so good that a businessman offered to buy the site’s entire biodegradable stock to use as fertilizer. Perez, however, turned him down.

"Hindi ako pumayag kasi gusto ko ang mga tao ang makinabang doon," the mayor says. "Kaya ang basura niyo, ipunin niyo. May objective tayo diyan."

The mayor says that come December, the center’s plants and flowers will be even more beautiful because the weather is less humid. "Tulad nitong aster, tinanim lang namin yan sa compost. Sabi nung iba, hindi raw lalaki yan dahil kailangan pa daw ng artificial light. But we proved them wrong. Doon siguro nagkulang ang Department of Agriculture. Dapat kasi dati pa nila pinromote ang paggamit ng compost."

Without question, Perez’s stock knowledge about plants is superb. Asked why he knows so much about it, Perez just shrugs. "Mahilig lang ako magtanim kasi magsasaka kasi ako dati."

Clad in a plain white collarless shirt and faded slacks, Perez indeed looks more like a farmer than a politician. And at heart, he probably is.

According to his assistants, the mayor doesn’t act like a hotshot executive. While he displays a strong, no-nonsense attitude, Perez remains simple, friendly and even chatty, like he’s just one of the gang.

Rarely seen living it up in first-class social events or parties, the two-term mayor chooses to spend his time working at the dumpsite.

"Mas madalas pa nga siya dito sa mga basura kaysa sa opisina niya, eh," says Pantuwa. "He’s really a hard-working guy."

Imee Reyes, a municipal hall secretary, describes Perez as a "successful person minus the bloated head".

"He’s so humble and down-to-earth," she says admiringly of her boss. "Visitors are very surprised to learn that he is often seen without a driver or even a police escort when he moves around Los Baños."

Perez, however, brushes off such praise. "Pare-pareho lang naman kaming tao so bakit ako magma-mataas?" he says. "Sa baba rin naman tayo nagsimula."

His entry into politics started rather late, almost immediately after he found out that a barangay official in their district was as "crooked as a corkscrew".

"Yung tao kasi na yun, pati mga kasamahan niya niloloko niya," Perez says. "I knew him personally and sabi ko, kung ito ang palaging mamumuno, puro kalokohan lang ang gagawin. Wala ng aasenso.’"

Limited by his earnings as a farmer, Perez couldn’t afford a real campaign. But with his supporters in 1989, he ran for barangay captain and won by a landslide.

"I guess the people in my barangay were sick and tired of what was going on. They wanted change," Perez says. "Kaya when I took over, I made sure they got it."

In 2001, Perez won his first term as mayor, and was quickly faced with such troubling issues like rapid urbanization and population growth. What bothered him more, however, was the community’s waste problem.

"May nag tanong kung ano daw nag-inspire sa akin para i-solve ito. Ang sabi ko, yung problema," he shares. "It’s that simple."

And blessed with the rare trait of actually keeping campaign promises, Perez won a second term last year.

Perhaps the most significant detail of Perez’s waste management program is that it was only implemented in the middle of last year. Just recently, Los Baños was selected as the Wellness Capital of the Philippines under the One-Town One-Product-Philippines program –a priority project of President Arroyo.

Perez is a frequent speaker nowadays in different cities nationwide, since many officials from other areas want to know more about his "ecological governance"–something the mayor is only too happy to share. He chairs the Philippine National League of Municipalities’ Waste Management Committee.

To date, the Ecological Waste Processing Center not only produces organic compost, it serves as a learning center and demonstration farm as well. It is currently experimenting with turning non-biodegradable trash into products like plastic tiles.

"Pero hindi pa kami 100 percent. Meron pa kaming hindi nase-segregate dito," Perez admits."Ang main vision ko balang araw is to uplift the standards of living ng ating mga mamamayan."

In some very real ways, he already has.

Through hands-on leadership, social practicality and dedication to his work, Mayor Caesar Perez has inspired a cleaner, healthier, and more disciplined citizenry in Los Baños.