Ecosavers Club launched in schools

MANILA, Philippines - Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Ramon Paje said an initial 250,000 units of Ecosavers Club Passbook will be issued to students actively involved in a waste reduction campaign wherein they can exchange recycled items for school supplies or even cash.

The National Ecosavers Program (NEP) is a recycling campaign launched by the government in 2012 in a bid to reduce garbage from schools and households through the establishment of an ecological solid waste recovery system in every school, which would allow public elementary and high school students to earn money or get free school items when they bring in their recyclables.

“An incentive mechanism was created under the program where students are issued passbooks to record the credit points they earn from their recyclable and biodegradable materials. The recyclables are then pooled for final collection by accredited junk shops and recyclers,” Paje explained.

The NEP’s initial phase is being implemented in 783 government primary and secondary schools in the National Capital Region involving some 1.9 million students. The program’s national expansion is underway.

The DENR turned over the Ecosavers Club Passbook to the Department of Education (DepEd).

Aside from the DENR and DepEd, the NEP is also being implemented by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in partnership with the National Solid Waste Management Commission, Galing Pook Foundation and major players in the plastics industry.

The DepEd reported that prior to the distribution of the official Ecosavers passbooks, schools implementing the NEP used improvised passbooks for their students. The passbooks indicate the weight of each type of waste brought by the student and the corresponding points.

The DENR, which had allotted P50 million for the initial implementation of the NEP, is targeting the distribution of one million passbooks within the year, and the remaining 900,000 by 2015.

DENR records show that around 30 percent of the solid waste that remain uncollected come from informal communities where most public students reside.

“The NEP is a way to ensure that solid waste in areas that the MMDA is unable to collect from is reduced, and we thank public schools for their initiative and participation in the program,” said Paje.

For his part, DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro said recently the NEP also encourages students to learn financial management at an early age because aside from recording the waste and number of points they have earned, they can also use the passbook to set up an account with partner banks.

Paje, however, noted that one of the challenges faced by the national government in implementing the NEP is the “lackluster support from local government units.”

 – Rhodina Villanueva