Trash talk

So after many years, the trash shipped to the Philippines from Canada is finally on its way back from where it came. Who would have thought that the trailer vans declared as plastic scraps were actually someone else’s trash? And we accepted it, placed it on our dumping grounds before it was returned. Has the Philippines became a dumping site for other countries’ trash? I don’t know but we don’t deserve trash.

The garbage situation is getting out of hand. In Cebu we are faced also with the problem of where to put our trash. Apparently we are running out of choices where to dump it. The landfill in Consolacion is still undergoing rehabilitation after someone was killed following a “garbage landslide.” The one in Aloguinsan seems too far and inconvenient and there are protests against the newly-opened one in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City. Despite all this, has anybody proposed a real and doable solution to solve the increasing volume of trash accumulating day after day? Along with the rise in population comes the rise in trash, it’s a problem we are going to face in the coming years.

I have personally visited the landfill in Binaliw and have seen the modern technology applied by the engineers who comprise the team operating it. Although it is not fully operational as it is scheduled to open on July first, their act of accepting garbage after what happened in Consolacion is a sign of their intent to help (and of course with the money that they make out of accepting trash and selling anything useful found). In the long term, they are looking at putting up a waste-to-energy plant --another plan that is set to be opposed again. They say it is hazardous and dangerous to the health of those living around the area despite the pros that it can reduce the by-product of the accumulated trash, plus give us energy output. While the plan is still in the shelves, I hope the new set of legislators and leaders will look into this. We need something fresh, new, and modern to address our garbage woes.

The day and age of the 3Rs --reduce, reuse, and recycle are gone. It has been a cliché for years that people cannot do at all. The best way to help the environment is to discard single-use plastics. It’s time to revolutionize the way we do our shopping and using our consumable products. Plastic was never an option. It only adds up to the already big pile of trash.

My heart breaks that we lack people in the government who have the passion to act upon our garbage problem. They say there is treasure in someone else’s trash but we are not giving those with ideas a chance to speak for themselves. It’s time we reevaluate how we collect and dispose of our garbage. The cleanliness of our place will reflect our character and will be the basis of the next generation.