Metro residents greet 2014 with trash

COVERED in hundreds of Christmas lights, a house in Filinvest East, Cainta, Rizal, welcomes the New Year in style. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

As usual, the New Year’s Eve revelry left mountains of garbage in the streets of Metro Manila, the environment group EcoWaste Coalition lamented Wednesday.

“On the first day of the New Year, we see the all-too-familiar sight of street dumps and smell the stink of mixed garbage rising from it,” said the group’s national coordinator Aileen Lucero.

“Tons of garbage from the revelry, left on the streets to be collected and disposed of by haulers in far-off places, greet passersby and commuters covering their noses because of the stench,” she added in a press release.

“Disappointingly, this is the messiness by which we usher in the New Year. And it’s a messiness that is polluting even faraway communities where such garbage is disposed of in dumps or landfills,” she observed.

EcoWaste, a waste and pollution watch group, said its patrollers reported “street dumps” on J. P. Rizal Avenue, Makati City; Sangandaan Market, Malabon City; Martinez Street, Mandaluyong City; Francisco Street in San Andres and the whole stretch of Quirino Avenue, Manila; and E. Rodriguez Avenue, Damayang Lagi and Kaliraya Streets in Quezon City.

The heaps of trash consisted mainly of firecracker wrappers, food leftovers, Styrofoam containers, soiled packaging materials and “lots and lots of plastic bags,” the group said.

EcoWaste urged Filipinos to make it their New Year resolution to commit to preventing and reducing waste this 2014.

“We invite everyone, from the filthy rich to the dirt poor, to waste less this New Year by reducing what we throw away and reusing, repairing and recycling even more,” Lucero said.

“By aiming for a zero waste lifestyle at home, church, school, workplace and neighborhood where we belong, we save precious resources from being squandered, reduce environmental pollution, make our communities tidier and safer and save public monies by avoiding disposal costs,” she said.

“We surely can have a garbage and toxic-free society by embracing a more eco-friendly way of life,” she added.

“Otherwise, our littered streets will turn from bad to worse and our garbage production will perpetually swell, polluting surroundings near and far and consuming lots of public funds for cleanup and disposal,” she warned.

According to the website of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), the waste generated by Metro Manila households is poised to increase from 8,754 tons every day in 2013 to 8,907 tons daily in 2014.

It also said that Metro Manila’s garbage was 52 percent biodegradable, 41 percent recyclable and 7 percent residual.