The ICCP Group Foundation, Inc. (IGFI), the social development arm of the ICCP Group of Companies, has turned to help locators in the sites owned and operated by the Group’s Science Park of the Philippines, Inc. (SPPI), and Pueblo de Oro Development Corporation (PDO).
In a creative effort to combat solid waste and to reduce the cutting of trees, IGFI organized the recycling of used wooden pallets. Pallets are disposable wood platforms discarded from deliveries of goods or equipment, which are usually made from yellow pine and oak.
Before IGFI started to recycle the used pallets, these were just being disposed or sold to scrap shops by the locators. But now under the program, locators are invited to convert their used pallets to school chairs for kindergarten students and to distribute these to neighboring daycare centers.
The project started in 2013 in Cabuyao, Laguna in partnership with Procter & Gamble, a locator in SPPI’s Light Industry & Science Park (LISP) I. This project has since been implemented in LISP III in Sto. Tomas, Batangas with Aruze Philippines Manufacturing, Inc. and in Cebu Light Industrial Park (CLIP) in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu with Teradyne Philippines Limited.
A total of 2,000 recycled chairs have been distributed through IGFI to various project beneficiaries and host communities of PDO and SPPI. In Laguna, 1,500 ‘paleta’ chairs were donated to the daycare centers of Barangays Diezmo and Pulo in Cabuyao and Barangays Real and Lamesa in Calamba.
In Sto. Tomas, Batangas, 225 chairs were given to Barangay Anastacia, while in Lapu-Lapu, Cebu, 275 chairs were contributed to Barangays Basak and Babag.
A total of 1.16 million hectares of tree cover loss was recorded from 2001 to 2018 in the Philippines mainly because of deforestation and “kaingin” (burning and slashing of trees), data from the Global Forest Watch showed. Given the diminishing number of the trees in the country, it is crucial to preserve what else is left.
Apart from the obvious benefit of this recycling to the environment, another objective of the project is to expose the children to sustainable practices, for them to realize and appreciate that recycling is one of the best ways to make a positive impact.
The ICPP Group believes that one of the most effective educational approaches in teaching children the importance of taking care of the environment is through a rich learning experience. For schoolchildren to embrace the idea of recycling early on in their lives, familiarity and awareness are needed.
The recycled chairs also contribute to a better classroom and more conducive learning environment for the schoolchildren, as it offers a sturdier and more comfortable support compared to the normal monobloc plastic chairs.
IGFI and its partners are now drawing up plans to create classroom cabinets and book-and-magazine racks from the scrap pallets. Meanwhile, PDO and SPPI are also studying the expansion of its daycare center beneficiaries by partnering with locators of the Hermosa Ecozone Industrial Park (HEIP) and LISP IV to implement the CSR project in Hermosa, Bataan and Malvar, Batangas, respectively.
The recycling program is one of the many initiatives of the ICCP Group as they fulfill their commitment and continue designing programs that will further promote sustainable development.