Poll bets should recycle campaign materials, says EcoWaste Coalition

An environment group has urged both winners and losers in the recently concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (youth elections) to recycle their campaign materials.

The EcoWaste Coalition said on Tuesday that instead of dumping and burning campaign tarpaulins, candidates should sort their campaign paraphernalia.

“Sorting the campaign materials into paper, cardboard, plastic and other classifications will help in finding new uses for them,” Daniel Alejandre, Zero Waste Campaigner of EcoWaste Coalition said in a statement.

“Reusing, repurposing or recycling the campaign materials will conserve valuable resources from being wasted, while reducing the volume of discards requiring disposal and its associated costs,” he added.

Alejandro suggested that flyers and sample ballots could be used as scratch papers and memo pads.

He added that used tarpaulins meanwhile could be reused as seat covers for public utility vehicles.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec), meanwhile, also urged winners and losers in the May 2018 elections to remove their campaign materials.

“It goes without saying that since they are the ones that put them up, it is also their responsibility to take them down,” Comelec Commissioner Luie Guia said. /muf