While the government is boosting efforts to rid the Manila Bay, the Pasig River and our other bodies of water of garbage, it cannot do the job on its own. Our people have to do their part.
In recent years, the reckless manner in which garbage is being disposed of in this country has come under close scrutiny, especially after causing massive flooding.
We have to learn lessons from past tragedies. Citizens must stop illegally dumping garbage and government authorities must strictly enforce anti-littering laws.
Our garbage and littering problems have become unbearable. This is why flooding in our cities has gone from bad to worse.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and other government agencies conduct regular cleanups of creeks, waterways and drainage systems in flood-prone areas in Metro Manila, but citizens who keep dumping garbage around negate all these efforts.
The national government and local governments are spending billions to fight floods in Metro Manila, but no amount of dredging or drainage engineering will be enough to fight floods if citizens don’t help or cooperate.
Our people should stop their indiscriminate and irresponsible dumping of garbage along streets, esteros and other waterways.
Local governments should team up with the police and the MMDA to ensure that all the laws on littering and garbage disposal are enforced. They should have more anti-littering enforcers and develop a ticketing system both for individuals and businesses. Violators should be made to pay heavy fines, spend jail time or be made to do a reasonably lengthy period of community service. The Judiciary should have special environmental courts to toughen up the enforcement of anti-littering laws.
Also essential is a successful recycling industry. The Philippines generates about 35,000 tons of garbage daily, more than 8,600 tons per day in Metro Manila alone, according to an Asian Development Bank expert, Aldrin Plaza of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department.
Only about 70 percent of these tons of garbage are collected. Those that are collected end up in open dumps and makeshift landfills, with only a small percentage of it getting recycled.
In contrast, our neighbor Taiwan has one of the highest recycling rates in the world, where more than 1,600 recycling companies in operation are able to recycle 55 percent of the trash collected from households and business establishments, as well as 77 percent of industrial waste, according to official studies. The recycling companies in Taiwan are able to generate at least $2 billion in annual revenues, proving yet again there is money in recycling garbage.
Taiwan’s largest charity group, the Tzu Chi Foundation, has hundreds of volunteers who sort and recycle plastic waste along with used glass bottles and electronic appliances.
Used plastic bottles, for instance, are treated and processed and through modern technology are made into textiles such as blankets, clothes and even shoes, bags and dolls.
Tzu Chi runs 5,400 recycling stations across Taiwan with the help of more than 76,000 volunteers and has distributed hundreds of thousands of blankets made from plastic bottles for relief use in Taiwan and other countries, including the Philippines.
It has been almost two decades since the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act was enacted in this country. By this time, all our cities and municipalities should have their own garbage control, waste handling and recycling programs. We should be able to reduce our trash through proper recycling, which is also important in conserving resources.
These are only a few ways to arrest and reverse the undisciplined manner in which garbage is disposed of in this country. But the No. 1 concern should be discipline. Every decent-minded and patriotic citizen should appreciate and practice proper garbage disposal. A cleanliness campaign must simultaneously take place in our homes, schools, communities and workplaces.
We should realize that solving our pollution and flooding problems require the efforts of the entire society. It cannot be left only to the government.
We should also realize that tourists and investors also judge a country based on how clean it is, and that cleanliness is a reflection of the quality of a country’s citizens.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano