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Monday, January 2, 2017
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IN THE unfolding era of climate change, the unrestrained garbage disposal following the New Year revelry was totally unacceptable. Streets were again dotted with stinking rubbish that in some areas might even take days for the garbage crew to clear.
After all the holiday shopping and partying, we find our household bins bulging at the seams and the streets strewn with garbage waiting to be swept away and hauled to the dumpsite. The ugly sight and stench of mixed “holitrash” (short for holiday trash) left on street corners and market areas can make one’s stomach turn.
Firecracker remnants, disposable food containers, plastic and other packaging wastes, and food leftovers were among the common items disposed of in large quantities. Worse, we see this dreadful trashing of the environment happening on the first day of the annual Zero Waste Month in January. This is ironic and totally unacceptable.
Then President Benigno S. Aquino through Proclamation No. 760 declared every month of January as Zero Waste Month “to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.”
For the next New Year revelry, people should try the 3Rs – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. In the midst of a changing climate, we can no longer continue maltreating Mother Nature as a limitless source of raw materials for our needs and wants, and as a vast landfill for wastes and toxics. Our wastefulness is already taking its toll on public health and the environment with garbage choking not only our communities, but even our rivers and seas. Also, waste disposal costs a huge chunk of taxpayers’ money.
The unchecked dumping of all types of trash on the streets is not only appalling and irresponsible but outright illegal. Littering, throwing, dumping of waste matters in public places such as roads, sidewalks, canals, esteros or parks, and establishment, or causing or permitting the same, is prohibited and punishable under Section 48 of Republic Act 2003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
Keeping our environment clean on the first day of 2017 is the right way to start a new year.
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