ENVIRONMENTAL group Ecowaste Coalition on Saturday appealed to people celebrating the Yuletide season to keep reusable, recyclable and compostable discards out of bins and dumps, saying these materials can be used for the next holidays and other purposes in school and at home.
The group made the appeal amid the climate and garbage problem facing the country, especially the National Capital Region.
Ecowaste cited government estimate that the country produces over 40,000 tons of trash a day. In Metro Manila alone, the daily waste generation is approximately 9,213 tons.
“We request the faithful to place the 3Rs [reduce, reuse, recycle] at the heart of the joyful celebration,” said Daniel Alejandre, the group’s Zero Waste campaigner.
With increased consumption and disposal, waste production soars during the Christmas and New Year holidays.
“Instead of ripping and throwing them to the bin, we can save those bags, wrappers and ribbons for the next gift-giving season, or reuse or repurpose them for household, office and school needs,” Alejandre suggested.
He said every packaging item that is not disposed of and put to good use is good for the environment. “Of course, it is better not to wrap gifts at all to avoid the use and depletion of resources.”
Ecowaste cited several ways of preventing Christmas packaging from adding to what it described “holitrash” or holiday trash.
• Paper or plastic gift bags can be reused as a carry bag, as a receptacle for office or school documents and materials, or as a container for holiday decorations.
• Wrappers can be folded neatly and use as book or notebook cover or as a material for school art and craft projects, while ribbons can be made into an ornamental garland or stored for future uses.
• Gift boxes can be reused as an organizer for e-gadgets and accessories, photos, prayer articles, toys, trinkets, needles, threads, buttons and other sewing essentials, bills, letters, etc.
• Hampers can be reused as a container for fruits, vegetables, and indoor plants.
• Greeting cards can be cut into bookmarks or kept as art materials; gift tags can be used for labeling purposes; and money envelopes can be reused to keep name cards, ID photos and the like.
The group added that discards from the holiday food preparations can be washed, dried and reused or repurposed in a variety of ways.
“For example, tin cans, juice and milk packs, and plastic bottles can be used for container gardening, or reused as an organizer for accessories, jewelry, keys and office supplies, while empty bottle jars can be reused as a container for candies, jams and preservers made from overripe fruits,” it stated.
Alejandre said “Composting is an excellent way to recycle holiday food waste such as fruit peels, vegetable scraps, eggshells and other organics into nutrient rich fertilizer or soil amendment.”
“By not mixing discards and with a little creativity, we can surely cut down on the huge quantities of ‘holitrash’ sent to the dumps,” he added.