Why segregate the garbage if the segregated garbage will not be taken?
Why have a huge campaign informing everyone that they must separate glass and plastic or face a penalty when large bags of glass will not be taken? What is the point?
I knew this campaign was worthless because I have never once seen a recycling truck in the area. Not once!
Too many empty plastic containers and glass bottles have been sitting around the house for far too long so I bagged them up and set them out. The garbage men took the plastic the left the glass.
The next week came around and I set these bags out again and waited for them to ask why they would not take the bags.
You know what this guy wanted?
100 pesos!
Either I could give him 100 pesos or I could drive to the place they dump the trash and bribe the checker myself with 100 pesos to dump all this glass! How's that for segregate your garbage and let's recycle!
It would just be easier to smash the glass and mix it with the garbage. No actually that would be a lot of work. It would be easier to just toss it in the river or on the side of the road!
The next time the garbage truck came again I wanted to ask again about taking the glass. I wanted to be very clear on the subject. This time I was not asked for money. Instead I was told that they cannot take the glass but a truck will come on Sunday to collect it although I have to request it. Sounds like garbage to me. Why should I have to request the recycling truck to stop by my house?
So I've been looking up and reading about the "No Segregation, No Collection" drive going on in this town. Guess what? ZERO compliance. But they are still taking the trash of course.
There are not a lot of specifics about this program online. By specifics I mean what exactly is to be segregated and how is it to be collected or what is to be done with the segregated garbage. Is it really cardboard, plastic, glass, and aluminium they wanted segregated? I don't think so. It seems like the city wants to have all the bio-degradable garbage like organic waste segregated so they can shred it to bits and use it as fertiliser in "organic farming." But then why don't they come right out and say it? "Segregate all your bio-degradable garbage."
The city has invested big money in garbage shredders. 8 million pesos! But just how they are to be used I have no clue. I don't think the barangays they distributed them to know either because they are sitting idle as no one has been segregating their garbage! And how about the logistics of that? You got one shredder per barangay but how is everyone's waste going to be shredded? We are talking about thousands of households as well as stores and markets. Will the shredder be going from house to house? Must the waste be transported to the barangay hall? Or will all that bio-waste be collected and then shredded on site?
What seems to have happened is that the city got on an environmental kick, passed a resolution on garbage segregation, but did not implement a plan as to how this would actually work. Then there is the issue of enforcement. Only the DENR or officials deputised by the DENR can enforce compliance. The mayor admits the whole thing is a FAILURE!
So I decided to go to the barangay office and get the scoop on what is going on. You know what the lady I talked to told me? Well first of all she said she did not have any flyers with the information I was looking for on what is to be segregated and what to do with it and that the barangay and not had the educational meetings about segregation they were required to have. Second of all when I told her that the garbage men would not take the glass I had she said it would be easier to put it in a bag and tie it up so they would not see it and then take it.
This lady just told me to do everything antithetical to garbage segregation.
Thinking I'd have better luck at City Hall, I went. What a mess. The office I was led to was very large and everyone was on their phones while Showtime blared on a very tiny TV. One guy behind me was burping at regular intervals as he played with his phone. No one was doing any work to speak of.
I told the secretary about my issue with the glass not being taken and that I wanted information on segregation. Thankfully she produced just the pamphlet I was looking for.
This pamphlet was really the only thing I wanted. But to my surprise the head of the department met with me and we talked about the issue I was having with the glass and what to do with it. He said the garbage men cannot take the glass. He also said there is no place to recycle the glass. Then he asked for my number and said he would call me and arrange for a junkshop to pick the glass up by Friday which was in three days.
He never called!
Instead someone else took the glass to do something with it, I don't know what.
I wrote that I have not seen any recycling trucks but that is not exactly true. I have seen trucks carrying large amounts of plastic.
Just take a moment to bask in the glory of these trucks. There are 14 huge bags of plastic stacked high on top of the already full beds! Amazing! I hope they don't encounter low hanging electrical lines. Where are these trucks going? No idea but they are probably headed for some kind of recycling centre. Maybe. Where else would they go?
I have also seen trucks and tricycles overloaded with cardboard so there must be some place to recycle cardboard. But not glass for some reason.
The point of all this is to say that this city's garbage segregation is a failure and will continue to be a failure. Local and national government agencies going hog wild with projects that sound good on paper but have no mechanism of implementation, that is just how it is in the Philippines.
The next time the garbage truck came again I wanted to ask again about taking the glass. I wanted to be very clear on the subject. This time I was not asked for money. Instead I was told that they cannot take the glass but a truck will come on Sunday to collect it although I have to request it. Sounds like garbage to me. Why should I have to request the recycling truck to stop by my house?
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| Everybody's heard about the bird! |
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| Seg-seg-seg-segregation's the word! |
The city has invested big money in garbage shredders. 8 million pesos! But just how they are to be used I have no clue. I don't think the barangays they distributed them to know either because they are sitting idle as no one has been segregating their garbage! And how about the logistics of that? You got one shredder per barangay but how is everyone's waste going to be shredded? We are talking about thousands of households as well as stores and markets. Will the shredder be going from house to house? Must the waste be transported to the barangay hall? Or will all that bio-waste be collected and then shredded on site?
What seems to have happened is that the city got on an environmental kick, passed a resolution on garbage segregation, but did not implement a plan as to how this would actually work. Then there is the issue of enforcement. Only the DENR or officials deputised by the DENR can enforce compliance. The mayor admits the whole thing is a FAILURE!
So I decided to go to the barangay office and get the scoop on what is going on. You know what the lady I talked to told me? Well first of all she said she did not have any flyers with the information I was looking for on what is to be segregated and what to do with it and that the barangay and not had the educational meetings about segregation they were required to have. Second of all when I told her that the garbage men would not take the glass I had she said it would be easier to put it in a bag and tie it up so they would not see it and then take it.
This lady just told me to do everything antithetical to garbage segregation.
Thinking I'd have better luck at City Hall, I went. What a mess. The office I was led to was very large and everyone was on their phones while Showtime blared on a very tiny TV. One guy behind me was burping at regular intervals as he played with his phone. No one was doing any work to speak of.
I told the secretary about my issue with the glass not being taken and that I wanted information on segregation. Thankfully she produced just the pamphlet I was looking for.
This pamphlet was really the only thing I wanted. But to my surprise the head of the department met with me and we talked about the issue I was having with the glass and what to do with it. He said the garbage men cannot take the glass. He also said there is no place to recycle the glass. Then he asked for my number and said he would call me and arrange for a junkshop to pick the glass up by Friday which was in three days.
He never called!
Instead someone else took the glass to do something with it, I don't know what.
I wrote that I have not seen any recycling trucks but that is not exactly true. I have seen trucks carrying large amounts of plastic.
Just take a moment to bask in the glory of these trucks. There are 14 huge bags of plastic stacked high on top of the already full beds! Amazing! I hope they don't encounter low hanging electrical lines. Where are these trucks going? No idea but they are probably headed for some kind of recycling centre. Maybe. Where else would they go?
I have also seen trucks and tricycles overloaded with cardboard so there must be some place to recycle cardboard. But not glass for some reason.
The point of all this is to say that this city's garbage segregation is a failure and will continue to be a failure. Local and national government agencies going hog wild with projects that sound good on paper but have no mechanism of implementation, that is just how it is in the Philippines.
David,
ReplyDeleteYou have been here too long. You know the only time a Filipino says something out is when "Give me coin". LOL. As for the plastic I read a while back that China buys all the plastic they can from the Philippines to recycle it. Most likely to make cheap counterfeit products with. Going by the pictures we have the same type of trash truck that comes through our place, they take everything and do have their bags hanging off the back for their "prizes".
Funny isn't it? I mean here's a trash truck that refuses to take trash. But then you have the dump truck or open back trucks that will actually sort through your trash and separate everything. But I suspect that is the workers doing it to make extra money buy selling what can be recycled.