Php 5M recycling facility for coastal areas to be established

The Davao City Bantay Dagat Association, in partnership with the UN-Habitat Healthy Oceans and Clean Cities Initiative, will establish a Php 5-million Material Recycling Facility (MRF) that will help recycle plastics and bottles collected from coastal areas.

This was bared by Raffy Bermejo, Head of the Bantay Dagat, in an interview with the Davao City Disaster Radio on Thursday.

“Ang plastic makuha nato sa baybay, kadagatan, sa atong kasapaan, ang problema man gud ang pet bottles dili na sya ginapalit karon, kung ginapalit seldom kaayo so kaning Healthy Oceans and Clean Cities initiative, nakig alayon kini sa Bantay Dagat Association, gihatagan kita nila og 5 million pesos nga ayuda gikan sa Government of Japan, ang funder Government of Japan, para atong mugnaon bahalag gamay lang kining atong material recycling facility para magamit nato ma-reuse reduce, recycle ang plastics nga makuha nato sa atong baybayon (We get plastics from the coastal areas and rivers, and the problem is some of it like pet bottles are no longer being bought, so the Healthy Oceans and Clean Cities initiatives partnered with the Bantay Dagat Association and gave us Php 5 million worth of assistance from the Government of Japan, the funder, to create a material recycling facility that we can use to reuse, reduce and recycle wastes that we get from our coastlines),” Bermejo said.

He added that the processes necessary are already accomplished and they are waiting for the release of the Php1.6 million as the first tranche, and they will also utilize the second tranche to be released 60 percent in early October or late November to establish the MRF.

Bermejo said that they intend to use the remaining 10 percent to fund their social enterprise activity, which is to use the processed recycled shredded plastic as an ingredient for hollow blocks and grills.

“Ang mga produkto nga atong ginalantaw, ang paghimo og hollowblocks og bricks. Galingon nato o ishred nato [ang plastic] unya kadtong mga botelya.. atong i-crush isagol sa balas mao na ang himoon nato nga grill blocks and bricks ibaligya nato og balik sa construction (The product that we eye to produce is hollow blocks and bricks. We will crush it and shred it [the plastics] and the bottles, we will also crush it and mix it with sand and use that to make grill blocks and bricks and sell as construction materials),” Bermejo said.

Bermejo said that the bottles he mentioned are those that are often hoarded to be sold to recycling facilities. They plan to incentivize households that will gather the plastic and bottles.

“Kadtong mga botelya nga walay gusto mulabay, walay gusto mupunit or mupalit, iincentivize nato ang panimalay ato na siyang kuhaon (Bottles that are not thrown away, and those that are left unattended, and cannot be sold, we will give incentive to our households and we will get those bottles),” he said.

Bermejo said that their idea of incentivizing involves the sari-sari stores in coastal areas. Sari-sari stores will be the collection areas of the wastes.

“Tudluan nato ang sari-sari store kung asa sila magtapok, himuon nato ni sila nga collection area. Ang basura nga matapok sa mga tao dad-on nila sa tindahan puhon ilahang ipatimbang tapos mupili sila sa tindahan unsa ilahang gusto paliton, siyempre i-equate pud nato sya sa kilo sa plastic bottles, for example, one kilo nga plastic bottles ang kantidad 10 pesos, pwede na nila ipalit og mantika or toyo, irelease sa tindahan. Ang Bantay Bukid Association, ilang bayaran ang tindahan. (We will teach the sari-sari stores where they will gather the wastes and we will make them part of the collection areas. The wastes gathered by people, they’ll bring it to the store and these will be weighed and they will select the goods to buy, of course, it will be equivalent to the value of plastic bottles, for example, if it is worth Php 10.00 they can buy soy sauce or oil which will be released by the store. The Bantay Dagat Association will pay the store,” Bermejo said.

He also underscored that incentivizing the collection of waste is the way to go, to really persuade people to collect waste.

“Iincentive na nato ang gusto mutigom og basura kay importante na para kanato (We would like to give incentive to those who want to collect waste because it is very important for us),” he said.

Bermejo said that they collect about 8 tons of trash along coastal areas. He said that Bantay Dagat volunteers usually collect mixed waste, about 10 percent of which is plastic, and the remaining percent are materials such as “shoes, clothes, and slippers, and more”.

The Bantay Dagat volunteers work four hours every Saturday and are given Php 1,000 every Saturday for their work. These Bantay Dagat volunteers also put up their own association, the Bantay Dagat Association which is already registered with the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE). CIO