Basura Run

How trashy and disgusting is the Philippines?  It its so trashy and disgusting that there is a Basura Run where runners jog around town picking up trash in a competition to see who can collect the most and heaviest sacks of trash!

https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/256689/basura-run-volunteers-collect-sacks-of-garbage-from-cebu-rest-of-ph

September 7 may seemed like an ordinary Saturday for the rest of us, but for the Earth warriors who collected sacks of plastic garbage that were dumped in parts of Cebu and the rest of the country, it was a special day for doing their mission of saving Mother Earth. 

Cebu City supporters of the 5pcs Daily Habit collected at least five sacks of plastic garbage while they did their run along Osmeña Boulevard starting at 6 a.m. 

Basura run participants in Carcar City collected 14 sacks of plastic garbage.  The group also included teachers from the Carcar City district. 

Tony Galon, founder of the 5 pcs Daily Habit and Basura Run, joined a group of volunteers in Naga City. He alone collected a sando bag full of plastic garbage during his one kilometer run. 

In Cebu, at total of 14 Basura Run groups did their clean-up in the cities of Cebu, Carcar and Naga and the municipalities of Minglanilla and Cordova.  Simultaneous runs were also held in other parts of the country including the cities of Davao, Butuan and Bacolod City and Biliran. 

But their effort was not enough. 

Galon said that starting 2020, he wanted to already invite all the barangays in Cebu and the rest of the country to join their annual Basura run to expand their coverage. 

“To have a Basura Run on every barangay in the Philippines,  we need to improve the message, awareness that basura run exists,” says Galon. 

“Basura Run can’t clean a place entirely, but we can teach the people how to clean their place,” he says. 

The Basura Run is a community service by volunteers, who play the role of Earth warriors, to raise public awareness on the importance of responsible garbage disposal. The group holds an annual run where in volunteers would pick up every piece of plastic garbage that they would see along the way. 

Look at those guys smiling with their bags of garbage like wow they did a great thing. What a low when you have to resort to game theory in order to clean up the environment because there is so much garbage. It is exactly like when a parent plays airplane to get their child to eat.  You know when they pretend the spoon is an airplane and the mouth is a landing strip? That is baby stuff.

Tony Galon is the founder of the Basura Run as well as 5 pcs Daily Habit. Let's see what that is all about.

Its a habit armed to raise awareness to all the people that we need to do something for our current garbage situation not only in Cebu but all over the Philippines 

Started on January 1, 2015 as a New Year's resolution of TONY GALON, a runner, after seeing most of the runners while running just throw away their water bottles anywhere, an add up to the growing problem knowing the existing condition on our garbage not just in CEBU but all over the Philippines. 

It is an advocacy of runners and that of ordinary people that are looking forward for the future of our children by way of picking up 5 pieces of plastic daily and throw into the proper trash bin. We did this because we believe that doing so will we can convince you to NOT TO THROW TRASHES anywhere especially PLASTIC. 

We know that the 5 pieces of plastic waste shall not cleanse a city or town or even a village, but we believe that we attract notable that there is concern for the problem of litter or happen to be the main cause of FLOODS.

https://www.facebook.com/pg/5pcs-Daily-Habit-893731587366671/about/?ref=page_internal

Is this a joke? What kind of person tosses their water bottle just anywhere? I am a runner and I have never seen that. I also don't ever carry a bottle of water with me. Who does that? My average run is about 5 miles and even when I worked myself up to longer runs including half-marathons just for fun I never carried a water bottle. Are these runners so weak that they need to carry a water bottle? No way are they running so far and long that they risk dehydration. Maybe they are out in the sun? But I have gone running in the heat of the day around 2pm and still I had no need to carry a water bottle. There really is nothing like wearing yourself out and then drinking an ice cold bottle of water when you return home. Very refreshing and worth the wait.

Zamboanga had their second Basura Run in October 2018 and they gave out prizes to the heaviest bag of garbage.

The participants filled up their empty sacks with plastic wastes while they run and upon reaching the Tugbungan Elementary School, the trash collected were weighed and sorted and the groups or individuals with the heaviest trash were awarded with prizes.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1770924

The nature of the prizes isn't revealed. 

Well you can't fault these guys. The Basura Run is well intentioned and is a good thing. But the fact that such a run exists says a lot about the state of the Philippines. A nation awash in garbage. They even admit it!