Small wise ways to Zero Waste

We welcomed the new year with a bang — and probably mounds of garbage from the New Year’s Eve revelry. Imagine garbage collectors emptying overflowing bins and collecting piles and piles of garbage bags on street corners the morning after! That is, if you were lucky enough to have a garbage truck pass by your house after the holidays — they may forget to pick up your trash but certainly not the “Merry Christmas” envelope they left for you to stuff with your cash gift.

Then came the Feast of the Black Nazarene that annually leaves tons and tons of trash along the processional route (this year, it’s from Luneta all the way to Quiapo).

Ironically, January is Zero Waste Month, as per presidential proclamation.  Unsightly assorted garbage filling the already polluted air with its foul smell is not exactly the way to kick off Zero Waste Month — especially for a dynamic country like the Philippines, which supposedly has one of the most comprehensive waste prevention and reduction laws in the world! Let’s talk dirty (literally, that is) now: Republic Act 9003 espouses ecological solid waste management.  Fortunately, there’s a legal framework to help us solve this stinking problem without having to spend for costly waste incinerators.

But even before R.A. 9003 was enacted in the year 2000, garbology gurus Luz Sabas and physician Metodio Palaypay were already busy reaching out to various communities and sectors via the Zero Waste Recycling Movement of the Philippines Foundation, Inc. to promote the Zero Waste approach to managing society’s discards (which do not include the misfits). Their pioneering efforts have attracted a band of faithful adherents and triggered the birth of like-minded initiatives.

But you might ask: What is Zero Waste?  The EcoWaste Coalition, a public interest network pursuing sustainable solutions to waste and climate change, zeroes in on the topic: “Zero Waste (walang aksaya) is the synergy of principles, cultures, beliefs, systems, methods, and technologies that aims to eliminate wasting and ensure full and beneficial use of resources to restore ecological balance and provide for the needs of all creation.” 

According to the Zero Waste International Alliance, it “is a goal… to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.” It involves “designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, conserve and recover all resources, and not burn or bury them.”

As an astonishingly big bulk (74 percent) of the waste generated comes from households, various groups have rightly put emphasis on educating and working with families to embrace Zero Waste.

“The household is the point of major intervention. This is where the paradigm shift from a throwaway mindset to one of waste reduction and resource conservation must be effected and emphasized,” says Sonia Mendoza of Mother Earth Foundation.

With the war vs. waste being waged at home, Zero Waste advocates have some friendly words of advice to share. “Reducing waste is the best option,” says restaurateur Annie Guerrero of  Zero Waste Philippines. “If you buy less stuff, then you will have fewer things to dispose of.” 

In her book An A-Z Guide for a Green Pinoy, Annie lists a number of waste reduction tips, which include buying less stuff, refusing packaging whenever possible, buying quality goods that will outlast cheaper but inferior products, shunning disposables, avoiding anything you cannot reuse, repurpose, recycle, etc..

The “green-minded” Annie gives us more down-to-earth tips in her book An A-Z Guide for a Green Chef: “Instead of expensive air filters and ionizers for our homes, houseplants provide a more eco-friendly alternative not only for their aesthetic value but also for their efficacy in purifying our indoor environment.” And you don’t have to have a green thumb as there are no-fuss, low-maintenance plants you can grow inside your house, such as fortune plant, yucca, Japanese bamboo, sansevieria (also known as snake plant or mother-in-law tongue that you don’t have to take care of like your mother-in-law), aloe vera, water plant, philodendron, and rubber plant.

Zero Waste champion Dr. Paul Connett, who has visited the Philippines a few times, notes that “waste is made by mixing discarded items” and that “waste is unmade (or rather not made in the first place) by keeping discarded materials into a few simple categories.” 

Separating discards at source makes reusing and recycling easier.  The simplest method, especially if there is a space issue (as we live in a no-space age), is to segregate discards into biodegradable and non-biodegradable receptacles.  Food waste, garden waste, and other organics fall under biodegradable discards, which can be fed to animals or turned into compost.  Non-biodegradables can be further grouped into paper, carton box, plastic, glass, tin, etc. for recycling.  Clean recyclables can be stored at home and later sold to junkshop dealers or given to waste pickers or recyclers.

Most discards can also be repurposed into an array of decorative and functional items for use at home, school, office, and elsewhere. 

Margaret Tadeja-Cruz, an “upcycling” craftsperson, has co-published with the National Solid Waste Management Commission the manual 3Rs of Fun in Waste that tells you “what little things you can do to reduce waste that will end up in landfills (or dumpsites).”  Big examples of these “little things,” include toy horses creatively fashioned from fabric scraps, origami flowers or lanterns from instant noodle packs, doormats from broken or unpaired flipflops, garden shovels from cooking oil bottles, earrings and bracelets from phone cards, and a lot more artsy-craftsy items.

Zero Waste advocates give their collective nod to composting as the key to any successful waste management program, especially in Metro Manila where 52 percent of generated waste is reportedly biodegradable, 41 percent recyclable and seven percent residual. 

Joey Papa of the Bangon Kalikasan Movement puts it pat: “Composting is giving back what belongs to the earth.” 

Composting is really no rocket science and can be done in a variety of ways — such as through pits, pots, pails, drums, used tires, and other vessels, or with the help of worms.

In a joint publication, the EcoWaste Coalition and the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives outlined the major benefits that the society can derive out of composting, as follows: 

1. Composting returns nutrient-rich compost to Mother Earth. 

2. Composting helps combat climate change by replenishing the topsoil, helping it store carbon more efficiently.  

3. Composting can lead to huge savings for local governments in terms of reduced collection and hauling charges. 

4. Composting supports sustainable and organic agriculture, reduces the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. 

5. Composting supports disaster risk reduction efforts by preventing soil erosion and silting.

By reducing what we consume and dispose of, by separating our discards at source, by reusing, recycling, and composting, we surely can prevent and reduce waste, and celebrate Zero Waste Month just the way it should be — without waste!