Instead of disposing the tarpaulins used during the election campaign, re-elected Senator Cynthia Villar has tapped women in Dasmariñas, Cavite to make bags out of them.
“We are very glad that we have now a way for the proper disposal of these used tarpaulins,” said Villar, who has been pushing for livelihood programs in poor communities across the country.
Through this initiative, the senator said they were not only able to recycle the tarpaulins into something useful, but were also able to help women earn additional income for their families.
Villar, chair of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources in the previous Congress, said the recycling project benefits a small tailoring business, which employs mothers as sewers.
The finished product from the election campaign material has a dimension of 12 x 18 x 4 inches. It is white with the printed side of the tarpaulin made as the inside of the bag.
The senator said tarpaulin bags are more durable and environment-friendly substitutes for plastic bags.
The bags are distributed for free by the camp of Villar to further promote her advocacy for plastic recycling.
The tarpaulins collected by her staff were delivered to the shop owned by Cristina Ferrer and were made into bags for P16 a piece.
Ferrer said her four sewers are mothers who live nearby. One of her sewers has to look after a baby so Ferrer loaned one of her machines so the mother could work from home.
Ferrer, who has to look after two kids aged 10 and 7, said she appreciates Villar’s initiative to provide a source of additional income for mothers like her.
The Nacionalista Party senator earlier initiated a plastic recycling project which turns plastic wastes into school chairs.
Through a plastic factory she built in Las Piñas, 20 kilos of soft plastics such as food wrappers were recycled into a plastic chair with changeable parts and a life span of 20 years.
These chairs were donated to different public schools all over the country.