ILOILO City – The recent Dinagyang Festival made history of some sort, if not a record to beat.
It made use of 300 kaing – humungous bamboo baskets – as garbage bins.
As a result: the littering of trash was minimized, according to the General Services Office (GSO) of the city government.
Two GSO dump trucks and some 100 GSO personnel collected garbage from the kaing.
Also, the volume of garbage the festival generated was lesser than in previous Dinagyang editions, according to Engineer Neil Ravena, chief of GSO’s Solid Waste Management Division.
They were able to collect 98 tons of garbage – 21 tons on Jan. 25; 24 tons on Jan. 26; and 53 tons on Jan. 27 (the morning after the festival highlight).
Last year, said Ravena, for one day alone or after the highlight (tribes contest) of the festivity, 72 tons of garbage was collected.
Most of the trash gathered were plastic food wrappers from food kiosks on Solis, Ledesma, Iznart, Aldeguer, and Arsenal streets in the City Proper, he added.
Days before the festival, Mayor Jerry Treñas issued a public appeal – for revellers to make the Dinagyang trash-free.
Ravena himself warned that the GSO would be deploying personnel to catch garbage litterers and that violators would be fined P500./PN
