Two years after the National Ecosavers Program (NEP) was launched, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has handed over to the Department of Education (DepEd) 250,000 passbooks to allow Metro Manila public elementary and high school students to avail of the project’s incentives.
The DENR hopes to distribute by next year some two million Ecosavers Club passbooks to students of 783 public primary and secondary schools in the National Capital Region, with half of that number to be issued this year.
Under the NEP, passbooks may be used by students to record credit points for collecting and handing over recyclable or biodegradable materials. Points may be exchanged for school supplies and even cash.
The DepEd said NEP participating schools had been using improvised passbooks to record the types of waste that are brought by a student, its weight and the corresponding points earned.
In a statement following the first meeting of the NEP steering committee, Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said, “The NEP is a way to ensure that the solid waste that the MMDA (Metropolitan Manila Development Authority) is unable to collect is reduced.”
He thanked public schools for their initiative and participation in the program.
He said the NEP “is a unique, participatory program that involves everyone and benefits everyone.” It recognized, he said, that the solution to most problems should come from the stakeholders themselves.
The NEP is a joint project of the DENR, the DepEd, the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the MMDA and nongovernment organization Galing Pook Foundation.
It aims to set up an ecological solid waste recovery system in every school to reduce solid waste and urges schools to turn biodegradable waste into compost that can be used as fertilizer.
To encourage students to participate, they earn credit points for waste brought, which are recorded in Ecosavers Club passports.
The NEP has six primary components: Integration of solid waste management concepts into the school curricula; capability-building of students, teachers and communities; monitoring and evaluation of the program’s impact; advocacy and networking with other stakeholders and service providers; convergence, as well as complementation, with the National Greening Program; and sustainability through the pooling of resources among partner agencies and local governments.
But Paje bewailed the “lackluster support from local government units” for the NEP. He directed National Solid Waste Management Council executive director Ely Ildefonso to draft guidelines for its implementation, which should require local governments to support the program.
Education Secretary Armin Luistro said that while students benefited from the incentives that they earn, schools could turn biodegradable waste materials into compost, which could be used for the department’s project of growing at least five native trees in campuses.
Luistro said that apart from teaching students to be environment-conscious, the NEP would also educate them on financial management, as they could use the Ecosavers Club passbooks to start savings accounts.
The DENR set aside P50 million for the initial implementation of NEP, which was launched in 2012.