“Recycled” idea here a waste mgt novelty

LOCAL legislators are now into a “recycled” idea, though strictly speaking, it is a novelty. With the town into practicing segregation at source in its waste management program, local kids here bring recyclable garbage to school. While doing that and turning it over to a school based material recovery collection center, they would earn points. These points would be converted to school supplies, said Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) Chair Senen Lloren, in a phone interview. The move is to encourage young kids to popularize and make waste the management systems a part of the pupil's young lives, Lloren said.

The Jagna Young Eco-Savers Club, a school based organization of kids for a better environment is soon to get its legislative support when the draft ordinance passes into law, MSWM chair and the Sangguniang Bayan Health Committee head added. For Councilor Lloren who along with Mayor Exuperio Lloren and the local leaders and communities who crafted the Jagna comprehensive ten-year Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) master plan, getting all sectors involved to get a good program running is worth the effort.

From 2002, the town conducted series of ESWM workshops with the technical assistance from Eco-Governance and government agencies lending institutional support. The peak of it all is the ordinance on solid waste management, which Lloren sponsored. This seals the lid to solve Jagna's stinking worries, observers said. Fresh from a dry-run before implementing its ordinance in support of the ESWM Act of 2000 or Republic Act of 9003, the town has significantly reduced its wastes to 80%, reports Lloren.

The town has so far opted for a mandatory composting program and a parallel garbage collection program, which the town operates for a fee. The mandatory composting puts residences segregating garbage at source and effectively separates the biodegradable, non-biodegradable, recyclables and the hazardous. Into the compost pits go the biodegradable wastes while the pupils pick the recyclables and turn them to school for a “change or exchange.” Lloren said Jagna sells the recyclable wastes collected from schools to local junkshops.

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