EcoWaste Coalition decries piles of ‘post-revelry garbage’ in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines —Environmental group EcoWaste Coalition on Tuesday decried the piles of ‘post revelry’ garbage left after residents of Metro Manila welcomed the new year.

“It’s really great to see families happily celebrating the New Year. But what makes this beautiful tradition ugly is our penchant to consume and throw a lot of things as can be seen from the overflowing bins to the garbage piles dotting our neighborhoods following the revelry,” Daniel Alejandre, zero waste campaigner, said in a statement.

He noted that many of our communities, especially in populated areas, are “drowning in post-revelry garbage on the first day of January, which, incidentally, is observed as ‘Zero Waste Month’.”

“In some places, it may take a few days for haulers to clear streets of mini-dumps.  We need to stop trashing our communities,” he rued.

Based on the group’s monitoring on Tuesday morning, streets surrounding bargain hubs and market places were found to be “filthiest with trash strewn in wide areas.”

“We found mixed wastes dumped in our cities’ streets, including food leftovers, product packaging, plastics and hazardous residuals from firecrackers and fireworks,” Alejandre said.

The group reported widespread dumping at the Balintawak market in Quezon City, along Recto Avenue and adjacent streets in Divisoria, Manila City, at Monumento, Caloocan City, and around the Marikina City Public Market.

According to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Quezon City is the number one in garbage production in the metropolis generating 3,610 tons per day, followed by Manila City and Caloocan City with 1,175 and 913 tons per day, respectively.

Marikina City, meanwhile, ranked 6th with 460 tons per day after Paranaque City (635 tons per day) and Makati City (474 tons per day).

Overall, Metro Manila, according to MMDA, produces 9,872 tons of garbage everyday, constituting close to 25 percent of the national daily waste production at 40,000 tons.

The EcoWaste Coalition said “crass consumerism and poor waste segregation” contributed to the huge amounts of garbage requiring disposal after the holidays.

“While we demand that manufacturers embrace clean production and extended producer responsibility, we as consumers need to consume responsibly, choose products in least packaging, and ditch single-use plastics altogether,” Alejandre said.

“We should also properly sort our discards to facilitate their reuse, recycling or composting,” Alejandre pointed out,” he added.

As “Zero Waste Month” is commemorated, the group renewed its appeal to the public to commit to proven waste prevention and reduction practices as embodied in Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

The law requires “the formulation and adoption of the best environmental practices in ecological waste management excluding incineration,” such as waste separation at source, reuse, recycling and composting.  /muf