Many residents in Metro Manila who celebrated the New Year left tons of garbage on Tuesday and early Wednesday, drawing the ire of environmental activists.
The Ecowaste Coalition said many residents again welcomed the new year with piles of garbage around the metropolis.
The group said the merrymakers left trash on the streets, sidewalks, parks and market areas following the countdown to 2019 and the customary media noche feast.
“It’s really great to see families happily celebrating the New Year. But what makes this beautiful tradition ugly is our penchant to consume and throw a lot of things as can be seen from the overflowing bins to the garbage piles dotting our neighborhoods following the revelry,” said Ecowaste campaigner Daniel Alejandre.
“Many of our communities, especially in the thickly populated areas, are drowning in post-revelry garbage on the first day of January, which, incidentally, is observed as ‘Zero Waste Month.’ In some places, it may take a few days for the haulers to clear the streets of mini-dumps. We need to stop trashing our communities.”
Based on the monitoring conducted Tuesday morning by the group’s members, the streets surrounding bargain hubs and market places were found to be the filthiest, with the trash strewn in wide areas.
“We found mixed wastes dumped in the streets, including leftover food, product packaging, plastics and hazardous residuals from firecrackers and fireworks,” Alejandre said.
His group witnessed widespread dumping at the Balintawak market in Quezon City, along Recto Avenue and adjacent streets in Divisoria, Manila, at the Monumento, Caloocan City and around the Marikina City Public Market.
Reports from the Metro Manila Development Authority showed that Quezon City topped the list in garbage production in the metropolis, generating 3,610 tons per day. It was followed by Manila and Caloocan City at 1,175 and 913 tons per day, respectively.
Marikina City ranked sixth at 460 tons per day after Parañaque City (635 tons per day) and Makati City (474 tons per day).
The MMDA says Metro Manila produces 9,872 tons of garbage daily, constituting close to 25 percent of the national daily waste production at 40,000 tons.
Ecowaste says crass consumerism and poor waste segregation contribute to the huge amounts of garbage that require disposal after the holidays.
“While we demand that manufacturers embrace clean production and extended producer responsibility, we as consumers need to consume responsibly, choose products in least packaging and ditch single-use plastics altogether. We should also properly sort our discards to facilitate their reuse, recycling or composting,” Alejandre said.