EDITORIAL — Cleaning up after ourselves

There is now a proposal to penalize those who don’t clean up after themselves when dining in public.

Just recently the City Council conducted a public hearing on the proposed ordinance of Councilor Edgardo Labella II entitled “An Ordinance Amending Sec. 7 And Sec. 11 Of the City Ordinance No. 2709 Also Known As "An Ordinance Requiring The Observance Of 'Claygo' In Eating Establishments And Providing Penalties For Non-Observance Thereof."

Labella said he wants to mandate business establishment owners, proprietors and managers to regulate measures to encourage customers to practice CLAYGO (Clean as You Go) or the voluntary cleaning of the tables after eating.

For violation, the owners, operators, and or managing officers of covered establishments shall be penalized with the ?500 for first offense, and ?1,000 for the second offense. The establishments that fail to impose these measures will be fined ?1,000 and given a 15-day period to comply.

If they fail the second inspection, they will be fined ?2,000; and ?3,000 will be the fine for third failure as well as suspension of the business license.

We actually see something good in enforcing such a rule. We have been mentioning for a long time about our attitude of uncleanliness as Filipinos, and this extends to the mess we leave behind after eating in food squares, in public places, and the like.

While CLAYGO may not greatly impact the environment directly, it is one of those little changes that may eventually change one’s behavior toward how one deals with trash and takes care of the environment.

And considering how ingrained this attitude of uncleanliness has become in our psyche, we need all the help we can get to change it.

There is good news, though. According to Lydwenna Eco, deputy general manager of the Cebu2World Development Inc., the group behind the development of Carbon Market Development, the Barracks in Carbon Market is already implementing CLAYGO.

So it seems there is hope for many of us yet.

CLAYGO will teach us, even if it’s just a little bit, of how to clean up after ourselves so others after us can have a clean space. As we like to say, the best way to change an attitude is to have good examples.