Baguio City will mark Zero Waste Month with activities geared at enhancing people’s awareness of strategies on how to reduce, if not avoid, wastes to address the city’s problem on garbage management and on a larger scale, the resource depletion and climate crisis.
The activities will be spearheaded by the City Solid Waste Management Board (CSWMB) chaired by Mayor Benjamin Magalong in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Cordillera and other public and private stakeholders.
Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda, chair of the city council committee on health and sanitation, ecology and environmental protection and vice chair of the CSWMB, said a zero waste management fair will be conducted on Jan. 26 to 27 at the Malcolm Square anchored on the theme, “Basura mo, bawasan mo.”
Pursuant to city council Resolution 31 s. 2023, it will be conducted in partnership with the Zero Waste Baguio Inc., Eco Waste Coalition, and The Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives and will feature booths with information-education-communication materials and products of recycling and other solutions on solid wastes.
It will include demonstrations on food waste reduction, composting and other solutions, book swapping, collection of electronic wastes and other household clutter that are still usable for distribution to those who still have need for them, a youth concert with free admission, and free services particularly repair of used umbrellas and used shoes.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong encouraged residents to witness the fair “as there is much to learn on how each member of the society can help lessen the generation of waste and methane or greenhouse gas to mitigate the effects of climate change.”
Tabanda said as part of the month-long celebration, the CSWMB will also work out the organization of the junkshop operators and recyclers group into a cooperative to help enhance their livelihood and their involvement in the achievement of the goals of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Another project will be the institutionalization of the household item collection and barter in the different barangay districts which will not only help families de-clutter and discard the things that they no longer need but also find items that they need from the discards of others instead of buying new ones. This system is a practical way to reduce household wastage.
“Waste management is everyone’s concern and community involvement is the key to solve the waste problem,” the mayor said. – Aileen P. Refuerzo
