ONE man’s trash is a creative spirit’s treasure. That much was obvious on Saturday at SM Megamall and SM Supercenter Pasig, which hosted another Recycling Market Day that showcased discarded tetra packs creatively and fashionably recycled.

It’s a growing habit for many to gather all their paper, plastic and electronic waste every first Saturday of the month and bring these to the nearest SM Supermall for the Recycling Market Day. By cleaning their closets and de-cluttering their homes, they can literally turn trash into cash.

A joint project of the SM Supermalls in cooperation with the National Solid Waste Management Committee, Philippine Business for the Environment Cenro Pasig, EPWD-QC, and various local government units, the Recycling Market Day is part of SM’s commitment to help preserve the environment.

What exactly happens to the items traded in the fair? Environmentally conscious shoppers will be happy to know that these are made into very useful items. Tetra packs and colored magazine sheets, for example, are made into fashion items like bags and necklaces by Kilus Foundation, a multipurpose environmental cooperative.

In 1997, barangay chairman Andy Santiago of the Ugong Barangay Council in Pasig organized a group of housewives, called the Samahan ng Kababaihan ng Ugong, for the barangay’s clean-and-green projects.

The group, which later became a 500-strong work force of women, was later formally registered as Kababaihan Iisa ang Layunin Umunlad ang Sambayanan, or Kilus. At present, Kilus provides livelihood for 200 families through the production of assorted bags and other reusable products from disposed tetra packs of different brands, which are sanitized to become raw materials of the product.

Their production capacity is 40,000 pieces of bags per month, and these are very popular with foreigners, and are exported to the USA, Denmark, Sweden, Japan, Korea and France.

In Memory of Genius

YVES SAINT LAURENT will be called the greatest couturier of the second half of the 20th century and few will quibble with the assertion.

Glam on the Run

WHILE there is a myriad of motives to rant and rave about the frivolity of some collections, I choose not to delve on the negative. I try to find beauty where I can. Since I’m deeply steeped in the Audrey Hepburn/Grace Kelly/Elizabeth Taylor school of fashion, I found the glamorous gowns to be the most unforgettable creations presented at the recently concluded Philippine Fashion Week (actually a 10-day affair).

Fashion Goes Green

ONE man’s trash is a creative spirit’s treasure. That much was obvious on Saturday at SM Megamall and SM Supercenter Pasig, which hosted another Recycling Market Day that showcased discarded tetra packs creatively and fashionably recycled.

Gab Fab: Comings and goings

Prior to his return to the Philippines in April after cutting short a trip to the US to undergo medical treatment, the actor and his wife, Lorna Tolentino, had made several trips abroad in the hope of finding the best treatment available for the cancer, which, according to the web site of the National Cancer Institute, “forms near the ampulla of Vater [an enlargement of the ducts from the liver and pancreas where they join and enter the small intestine].”

It’s time to give the fallacy of the slacker hero a good kick in the pants

IF THE world of computer feature animation were, say, a couple of characters in a sitcom, Pixar would be the smart, sensitive, well-mannered overachiever and DreamWorks would be the loud, bumbling, insecure, media-addled doofus.

4th ‘Terminator’ film begins production, stars Christian Bale

TERMINATION Salvation: The Future Begins, starring Christian Bale and Sam Worthington, began principal photography on May 5 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.