THERE are all forms of trash talk, and they all are in season these days. There is trash talk against the church that did not stop a deluge of devotees surging in the solemn procession—a breath-taking swirl of 1.5 million this year from 500,000 last year. It’s no bluff that the institution’s biblical metaphor was “rock.”
And then there is that other trash talk, one that’s rather refreshing. This year’s post-Sinulog garbage haul was cut dramatically to 110 tons. That’s the smallest in three years. In 2017, the City collected 160 tons. The heap hit its worst in 2018 at 219 tons, at a time when it was the Cebu City Environmental and Natural Resources Office that was, well, on top of the heap with the help of 221 barangay environmental officers and volunteers. The campaign, called “Basura Watch,” issued citation tickets to revelers improperly throwing trash, slapped them with a P500 fine or offered them the option of community service.
But it was probably 2018’s rudimentary implementation of the “eco-stations” that inspired this year’s innovation. Last year, the CCENRO set up around seven eco-stations in designated “sectors” in the vicinity of the parade route. Far from perfect and, in hindsight, 2018 still sagged with the biggest bulk of trash.
So what had become of trash management in this year’s Sinulog that’s worth noting?
This year, the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) 7 took the helm. This is the one agency whose primary job takes to heart Presidential Proclamation 760, which declared January as the Zero Waste Month. As the City deployed the usual average of 580 street cleaners (with its laudable strategy of starting from the outside going in from day to night until the grand parade’s tail exits), the EMB 7 set up 50 eco-stations within the parade vicinity, deploying its staff to drum up the message of being mindful of one’s waste, regardless and most especially with plastic water bottles, the usual bulk in the trash surge.
And thus: 110 tons, more than a bald half of last year’s heap.
There are proposals to cut it from the source, to ban plastic water bottles, single-use plastic, among many others next year.
We appreciate all the science that was poured forth into the festivities’ garbage management efforts this year. Pit Senyor!