Environmentalists: Reduce holiday garbage

CEBU, Philippines - With Christmas just around the corner, the Ecowaste Coalition, a zero waste advocate urged the general public to reduce, reuse and recycle holiday discards as a token of appreciation to Mother Earth.

“Let us play Santa Claus to Mother Earth by keeping our holiday consumption within bounds and by cutting back on what we dispose of and recycling even more,” said environmentalist Sonia Mendoza, who heads the EcoWaste Coalition and the Mother Earth Foundation.

Mendoza, in a statement, said that excessive consumption puts tremendous pressure on nature where resources are obtained to create products for our needs and wants, which often leads to degraded and polluted ecosystems.

Mendoza said that the festive holiday season is when the throw-away mindset is at its worst as can be seen from the overflowing household bins and dump trucks and the countless garbage heaps dotting the streets.

She said that if one rummage through the bins, one will easily find the most discarded items during this time of the year such as packaging for toys, gift boxes and wrappers, shopping bags, disposable food containers and lots of food wastes.

To cut back on the generation of what the Coalition refers to as “holitrash” (short for holiday trash), Mendoza encouraged the public to put the 3Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle) at the heart of the festivity.

Consumers are also reminded to bring along a shopping list to avoid impulsive buying and unnecessary spending.

Instead of new gift wrappers, Mendoza said that givers can opt not to wrap Christmas presents at all or, if wrapping is desired, reuse old bandannas, handkerchiefs, fabric remnants, jars, shoe boxes, newspapers and magazines instead.   (FREEMAN)