The holiday trash in the holiday rush

No doubt about it, Christmas is in the nippy air. And if Christmas comes, can the mounds of holiday trash be far behind? Is it beginning to smell like Christmas, too?

Yes, Virginia, with Christmas comes the unfortunate rise in the volume of household waste due to increased consumption during the festive season. In view of this (garbage ain’t a pretty sight), pollution watchdog EcoWaste Coalition called for intensive composting to prevent offensive smell from rotting trash as well as to avoid the emission of chemical pollutants that is aggravating the climate crisis.

According to EcoWaste, government data show that Metro Manila’s garbage generation usually increases in December from 3,000 to 4,000 tons per day on regular days and up to 5,000 to 6,000 tons daily during the Christmas holidays.

Zero Waste advocates underscored the need for every household, school, barangay, and the various commercial and industrial establishments to set up their composting systems that will suit their waste size and their physical and space conditions at a seminar held recently to promote organic waste reuse for urban agriculture.

Says EcoWaste coordinator Rei Panaligan, “Biodegradable waste, the largest fraction of municipal solid waste, can be easily dealt with through composting. By separating our discards at source and turning organics into compost, we already solve half of our garbage problem and avoid a stinking mess that can spoil the Christmas spirit.”

In addition composting will help cut the formation and emission of methane, a greenhouse gas that’s got more than 25 times climatic impact than carbon dioxide, from mixed waste dumps and landfills.

Panaligan gives this down-to-earth word of wisdom: “We can stop methane releases from dumpsites by ensuring that our biodegradable discards are duly composted. We can similarly reduce the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides by producing safe organic inputs for our gardens and farms from composting.”

So add this “c” word to your green vocabulary — composting Com what? Composting is the controlled decomposition of organic materials such as fruit and vegetable peelings, leftover foods, yard waste, and other biodegradable discards into a humus-like product by micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi.

Compost can find a place in your beautiful garden as it is an effective bio-fertilizer, soil enhancer or even a soil supplement in vegetable gardens, flower beds, and for other agricultural purposes.

Green and bare it! Dr. Raffy Barrozo, board member of the Zero Waste Recycling Movement of the Philippines and director of the Organic Center at the University of the Philippines-Los Baños, knows many innovative ways of composting using clay pot, bin or bag, tower tire, twin pit, and bottomless composters.

He points out that putting up eco-gardens can provide extra livelihood for community members from vegetables, fruits, and herbs that can be grown and harvested for food and even for health and medicinal purposes.

To better understand the benefits of composting and eco-gardening, the participants visited two different models of urban eco-gardens at Barangay Holy Spirit in Quezon City and Barangay 187 in Caloocan City.

Attending the seminar cum study tour were Zero Waste advocates from Buklod Tao, Cavite Green Coalition, Ecology Ministry of the Diocese of Caloocan, Filipino Matters, Krusada sa Kalikasan, November 17 Movement, Sanib Lakas ng Inang Kalikasan and the Zero Waste Recycling Movement of the Philippines.

Now, this one gets our two (green) thumbs up!

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More shoe-disturbing news

“Ordinary leather shoe samples from the Philippines and five other countries were found to contain various environmental toxicants that can spread into the users and the ecosystems.”

This shoe-disturbing piece of news can be gleaned from a report titled “Bad Shoes Stink” published by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC).

At a ripe old age of 100, SSNC is Sweden’s biggest and oldest environmental organization. It had 21 pairs of shoes tested for certain hazardous chemicals, of which 11 pairs were purchased in Sweden, and two pairs each from South Africa, Uganda, Belarus, India, and the Philippines.

The international product survey was conducted to increase awareness among producers, retailers, and consumers on the harmful chemicals found in leather shoes, and can thus demand products free of problematic chemicals. These chemicals are used in the tanning, preservation, and dyeing of the leather. The tests are done at Swedish laboratories Swerea IVF and Eurofins.

The chemicals analyzed included metals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, cobalt, copper, lead, mercury, nickel and zinc); carcinogenic aromatic amines from azo dyes; chlorinated phenols; ortho-phenylphenol; 2,4,6-tribromophenol; dimethylfumarate; formaldehyde; and chlorinated paraffins.

Seven of these chemicals (arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, pentachlorophenol, and formaldehyde) are included in the priority chemicals list of the Philippines. These are chemicals have been ascertained by the Department of Environment and Natural Resouces as potentially posing unwarranted risks to public health, workplace, and the environment.

Says Manny Calonzo, president of EcoWaste, “The scientific investigation by SSNC found a cocktail of chemicals in the shoe samples bought in six countries that can put workers, consumers, and the environment at risk during the entire life cycle of the shoes.”

Calonzo adds, “For public safety and environmental health, we urge the authorities to enact and enforce policies that will prohibit dangerous chemicals

in consumer products, especially those that can cause carcinogenic, hormone damaging and allergenic hazards, and promote safe substitutes.”

The worst thing the study found was that tons of trivalent chromium derived from the tanning of leather are spread into environment every year when the shoes are eventually disposed of as waste. Chromium tanning accounts for some 80-85 percent of all tanning globally. Upon incineration, open burning or landfilling of leather waste containing chromium, the most common and least toxic trivalent form of chromium may oxidize into the highly toxic and carcinogenic hexavalent form.

Andreas Prevodnik, SSNC project manager for the leather shoe study, reveals, “The hexavalent chromium that has not been cleaned from the flue gases is spread into the environment. It can be breathed in, absorbed via the skin, pollute watercourses, and cause harm to humans and other organisms.”

Aside from trivalent chromium, the study also found azo dyes in two of the 21 pairs from the Philippines and Sweden that can degrade into carcinogenic aromatic amines or produce allergenic effects. The Philippine sample contained 68 mg/kg of benzidine, which is more than twice the acceptable limit of 30 mg/kg stipulated under the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemical Substances (REACH) of the European Union.

The azo dyes can be leached out from the leather by perspiration. It can be converted into carcinogenic aromatic amines and absorbed into the skin when the shoes are worn. Azo dyes in waste that is disposed of in dumpsites or landfills can also give rise to aromatic amines, which are spread into the environment with the effluent from the tips.

According to the DENR, the Philippines has no regulation yet on azo dyes, and while chromium compounds are regulated, they are not banned.

To protect yourself from these shoe-dangerous chemicals, put your best shoe forward and follow these tips from SSNC and EcoWaste:

• Ask for chromium-free leather.

• Buy only shoes you need.

• Use shoes as long as possible, and take them to the shoemaker if they need to be mended.

• Do not dump or burn discarded shoes.

It pays to be shoe-smart.

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