THIS HOLIDAY season, amid the climate and garbage woes facing the nation, it is incumbent on all Filipinos to keep reusable, recyclable and compostable discards out of bins and dumps consistent with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. Let us endeavour to reduce the volume of holiday trash or “holitrash” from the festive occasion.
The faithful should place the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) at the heart of the joyful celebration. Reducing the quantity of what we throw away does not require rocket science. It all begins with consuming responsibly and keeping our discards well sorted to make their reusing, recycling or composting easy.
Instead of ripping and throwing them to the bin, we can save those bags, wrappers and ribbons for the next gift-giving season, or reuse or repurpose them for household, office and school needs. Every packaging item that is not disposed of and put to good use is good for the environment. Of course, it is better not to wrap gifts at all to avoid the use and depletion of resources.
The EcoWaste Coalition cited several ways of preventing Christmas packaging from adding to the “holitrash.” Paper or plastic gift bags can be reused as a carry bag, as a receptacle for office or school documents and materials, or as a container for holiday decorations. Wrappers can be folded neatly and use as book or notebook cover or as a material for school art and craft projects, while ribbons can be made into an ornamental garland or stored for future uses.
Gift boxes can be reused as an organizer for e-gadgets and accessories, photos, prayer articles, toys, trinkets, needles, threads, buttons and other sewing essentials, bills, letters, etc. Hampers can be reused as a container for fruits, vegetables, and indoor plants. Greeting cards can be cut into bookmarks or kept as art materials; gift tags can be used for labelling purposes; and money envelopes can be reused to keep name cards, ID photos and the like.
Yes, discards from the holiday food preparations can be washed, dried and reused or repurposed in a variety of ways. For example, tin cans, juice and milk packs, and plastic bottles can be used for container gardening, or reused as an organizer for accessories, jewelry, keys and office supplies, while empty bottle jars can be reused as a container for candies, jams and preservers made from overripe fruits.
Composting is an excellent way to recycle holiday food waste such as fruit peels, vegetable scraps, eggshells and other organics into nutrient rich fertilizer or soil amendment. By not mixing discards and with a little creativity, we can surely cut down on the huge quantities of “holitrash” sent to the dumps.
With increased consumption and disposal, waste production soars during the Christmas and New Year holidays. Let us not look far for solutions. We are the solution.
