Gaane cmte discuss proposed Eco-Savers Program

THE City Council committee on health and sanitation and health insurance chaired by Councilor Maria Lourdes S. Gaane on Friday thoroughly discussed the possibility of passing an ordinance for the implementation of Eco-Savers Program in the city.

This is in line with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which requires cities to adopt a waste segregation scheme to realize its target of reducing waste through the reuse, reduce and recycle principle, The Power learned.

According to Councilor Gaane, there is a need for a school-based advocacy program on solid waste management to augment the city’s solid waste management efforts.

She said it is also a great contribution for all K-12 students who will be encouraged to get involved in cultivating a culture of environment protection.

Under the program, students will be required to bring recyclable garbage from their respective households during an assigned Eco Day, the day when the garbage is going to be weighed and credited to their issued eco-passbooks.

Each of the public elementary schools in the city is assigned an Eco Day, which is once a week.

Accredited junk shops will weigh the recyclables, record these in the passbooks and haul all the recycles collected. The recyclables are then valued according to the prevailing market price and reflected in the students’ individual passbooks using a point system which is P1 = 1 point, The Power learned.

During the meeting, Oliver Egypto, head of Task Force Solid Waste Management of CLENRO, said the project is similar to the ongoing program of the city tied up with Material Recovery Facility (MRF) of the barangays.

He said the proposed project will be sustainable since it will be created through ordinance.

Egypto suggested that the CLENRO and DepEd chair the committee with a youth representative as the co-chair.

As this developed, Councilor Gaane requested the CLENRO to prepare the program of works of the project for review and funding.

She said the committee will continue to discuss this with representatives of the Department of Education (DepEd-10).