LOCAL government-civil society cooperation as a concept is nothing new. It's even enshrined under the Local Government Code (LGC).
But how many local governments look at that cooperation as a partnership? Many LGUs look at NGOs as wild cards, as more threats than as partners. Local executive relegate NGOs to token participation to comply with LGC requirements.
A different banana is the local government of San Cárlos City. How different the city is from other Negrense cities or municipalities was amply explained during last Wednesday's SM-sponsored Trash to Crafts symposium at the SM Events Centre.
SCC representative Michelle Dumdum made a presentation how the city government tapped the services of Genesys Foundation for its information and education among its 18 rural and urban barangays. Genesys later became a member of the city's ecological solid waste management committee.
The city invested in an Ecocenter in Barangay Guadalupe that performs various elements of ecological solid waste management. It includes the de rigeur material recover facility, sanitary landfill, leachate treatment facility, and composting area.
San Cárlos implements a no segregation, no collection policy. The city collects residual wastes and biodegradable for its composting facility. For residuals, most are recycled into marketable products such as jewelry accessories.
Congratulations to Mayor Eugenio "Bong" Lacson for a job well done. You put to shame our provincial capital Bacolod City in dealing with its solid wastes.
What we in Bacolod's solid waste management committee dreamed of back in 2001 for a Health Wealth Center found its realization in San Cárlos's Ecocenter. Of course, San Cárlos's 17 metric tons of solid wastes pales with Bacolod's 300 MT a day.
Why can't Bacolod do the same? Bacolod has human resources among NGOs and the private sector and academia to help the city reuse, recycle or reduce its solid waste.
Convert trash into cash? Or more correctly, as PENRO Jessie Vego pointed out during the symposium, convert the trash into crafts that can bring the producers cash.
Nikki Seva of the Association of Negros Producers complains of not getting enough supply of raw materials for crafts projects. Her project requires huge volumes of used and unwanted DVDs and CDs. Seva uses a laser machine connected to a computer to design and do precision cuttings for making clocks and jewelry.
Maybe the National Bureau of Investigation and the Optical Media Board can donate confiscated DVDs to the enterprise?
West Negros University engineer Paolo Petalver demonstrated that there's more to PET bottles than containers for mineral water. The plastic bottles can be converted into Capiz-looking lamps or mini-Zen gardens. For aluminum cans, Petalver taught the participants how to make alternative camping stoves using denatured alchol to the more expensive butane stoves. The stoves are useful to mountaineers or to those working in forest conservation.
Alex Anuales showed the participants how to use polymer clay into trinkets. The modeling seems like child's play. But this enterprise can bring the child out in adults while helping producers earn money.
Congratulations to SM Primeholdings for these green symposiums and adherence to its vision on corporate social responsibility for the environment. As Coun. Jocelle Batapa-Sigue summed up, environmentalists need not be party poopers or doomsayers that climate change is bringing us closer to doomsday. There's cash to be made from trash.
I also wish to thank SM Assistant Vice President Danny Chávez, Mall Manager George Jardiolin and SM-Bacolod's indefatigable Public Relations Officer Lorena Quizan-Martínez for the invitation to join the event. May the company sponsor more similar events in the coming months. (Please email comments to bqsanc@yahoo.com)