Three R

In some parts of the Philippines you will notice garbage along the highway and vacant lots. You may quickly conclude that this is because of lack of discipline of its people. This may be true to some but for others this is due to poverty. Even though local government is the one in charge of garbage collection, it is not free in some municipality, the fee range from 30 to 100 pesos. For a country wherein most of the people live on $1 dollar a day, that amount is very hard to find. They would rather buy foods than pay the fee for garbage collection. For those who cannot afford paying the fee, they have no choice but to throw their garbage anywhere possible. This garbage include some hazardous materials and chemicals such as used fluorescent tube and used diapers, posing a health risk to the people especially the young ones. Some of this garbage is also being thrown to bodies of water like river, stream and seas causing fish kills and water pollution. Some were being burned releasing toxic gases in the air.

Its baffling why in some barrios or municipalities, garbage collection is free. This will made you wonder that there is a fund being allotted for garbage collection, it so happen that when the barrio official is corrupt, they will only put this fund on their pocket and will ask their constituent to just shoulder the cost of garbage collection. Though there is a fund being allotted for barangay, it is up to the barangay official where they will use that fund. Another possible reason why they are discrepancy in garbage collection is because fund allotment differs, there are barangays which have a higher fund allotment while some have small fund allotment. The government should shoulder the cost of garbage collection if fund is not yet being allotted for this purpose, since people are already paying high taxes which are more than enough to shoulder garbage collection cost. And to make sure that the fund being given to barangay will be used for garbage collection, they should make it illegal to use it for other purposes and collecting dues to its constituents.

Some may think that waste management is not important to be given that priority in the budget. Improving garbage collection will actually save the government budget because we can save the money being allotted for health purposes. Polluted air, water and land due to garbage can cause illness to people and damage to our environment. Improper disposal of garbage can also cause flooding, because this will clog our drainage system. Government has already spent so much money preventing flood and repairing the damage cause by it. And for ordinary folks, we should do our part too; we should practice 3 R, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. By following this 3 R there will be few garbage to collect, and few garbage mean less money to be used for garbage collection.