MANILA, Philippines — A German narrated that he went after a van passenger who threw a plastic bag of rubbish outside the vehicle’s window.
Frank Schuengel, an e-commerce executive, said he was aboard his bicycle on the Makati-Mandaluyong Bridge when he followed a van to return the bag of trash.
“The other day, I was cycling to work when the passenger of a van in front of me decided to discard a small plastic bag full of rubbish by simply throwing it out of his window and onto the street,” Schuengel said in his post on Saturday.
“Being the friendly chap that I am, I picked it up, went alongside the van with my bicycle, and handed the garbage back to him with a firm request to place it in a proper bin instead,” he added.
Schuengel also reminded Filipinos that it does not matter where you are from as everyone should participate in observing proper waste management and saving the environment.
“The ‘foreigner’ factor no doubt helped the video go viral, but humans either pollute or clean up regardless of the passport that is in their pocket. Trash doesn’t care about anyone’s citizenship, but it harms all of us, so let’s all try and do something about it,” he said.
Alarmed by the incident, Schuengel also urged Filipinos to “make a difference” as the pollution woes in the Philippines would not be solved by just one action of a bicycle rider.
Schuengel also cited a report of nongovernmental organization Gaia which stated that Filipinos use some 48 million shopping bags every day. /cbb