Sunday, October 14, 2007 Cariño: B’zura By Linda Grace Cariño Paradigm Shift
IT MUST have been sometime in 1991 when yours truly organized an environmental initiative between Baguio-based government line agencies and NGOs to address, specifically, proper waste disposal in Baguio. I was then with the DSWD regional office, and had a tough time selling the idea of such an initiative to my own boss. She was of the thought that it belonged under the auspices of the DENR. I persisted, and the initiative saw birthing. We called it Arobayan.
Our objective was to have a Baguio where waste segregation and the three Rs -- reduce, reuse, recycle – could be a common practice. After a number of meetings, it became clear that our first step had to be the re/education of the populace. Clearly, the Baguio citizenry had to be reminded that hazardous consumption habits could be reduced, that choices should be made in favor of reusable containers versus throwaways, that biodegradables should, precisely, be made to biodegrade.
That glass bottles should be favored over the plastic kind, that cardboard boxes should be favored over plastic bags, that brown paper bags and/or bayongs should be favored over their plastic counterparts. Etc., etc., etc. Likewise that plastic people should be given up in favor of the real ones, haha. I remember one government office head telling me that his whole staff had to be “recycled” because their heads were on wrong.
It’s been 16 years since then, and the city has had a tough time coming to the point where it is now, where waste segregation is now part of our local law, and there seems to be a system in place to support it. The catch: a citizenry that has not been sufficiently re/educated into said system, much less said law. Thus, with this “no segregation, no collection” thing, mountains of garbage are piled high EVERYWHERE in Baguio, causing obvious hazards to everyone’s health and well-being.
Might I so humbly suggest that haste be made slowly. Implement this “no collection, no segregation” from smallest to biggest barangays in phases, maybe four at a time, and then in increasing numbers. But first, ensure that the households involved are themselves indoctrinated into the policy, the system, the law. Given that it has taken close to two decades from the point when Arobayan first tried to get city involvement in proper waste disposal, methinks it will take at least one decade for implementation to happen with a decent success rate.
By that time, my four-year-old nephew Thor, who says “b’zura truck” when they happen along, will be fourteen. By that time, maybe waste segregation will be the automatic thought process it should be. Yes, it is first and foremost, mental.
