Rodrigo “Rigo” Duterte II enjoined the Dabawenyos to practice waste segregation at home habitually and help address waste problems of the city.
Rigo, grandson and namesake of former president Rodrigo Duterte and son of Davao City First District Representative Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, said every Dabawenyo has the responsibility to help in addressing waste problems of the city through effective segregation of wastes.
He said that segregation means less waste goes to landfill, and good health for the people and the environment.
“These are simple practices that we need to adopt to our daily lives. Himoon natong habit magsegregate. Mao lang jud ang kailangan ani. We need discipline and we need to constantly remind ourselves of the right things to do,” Rigo reminded residents.
He also cited simple ways to manage waste at home like limiting the use of single-use plastic and composting.
“Ang pinaka effective na pag-segregate sa waste is by dividing it into two categories – bio-degradable and non-bio-degradable for waste collection, “ he said.
Rigo hopes that Dabawenyos will always remember the five R’s of waste management: reduce, reuse, recycle, recover, and residual management.
“Pinaagi niini makatabang ta nga mabawasan gamay ang problema sa atong city,” he said.
Earlier this month, the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) reported that the waste being generated right now is almost 1,000 tons per day.
Meanwhile, various individuals and groups are taking steps toward reducing waste in the city.
The Toril Kalambuan Women’s Association recycles plastic wrappers and turns them into other useful materials, such as slippers, table mats, flower vases, bags and many others and sold for profit.
A start-up enterprise Limadol is also campaigning for the reduction of waste in sanitary landfills through composting.
This enterprise collects food waste in certain puroks in Barangay Tacunan and feeds it to their Black Soldier Flies. Compost products are also available in the market as packed organic fertilizers.
The Mintal Resource Collectors Association (MirCA) started as an individual scrap buy-and-sell business or commonly known as “Bote-Bakal”, before the Philippines, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka (PHINLA) Project. In 2021, the barangay local government unit of Mintal and through the support of PHINLA formed the association through their solid waste management program.
MirCA has 30 members who depend on their livelihood in the local recycling industry. MirCA collects recyclable materials in the households.
