Ecosavers crediting guidelines out soon

Authorities intend to finalize this year guidelines for crediting public elementary and high school enrollees who will participate in the government’s National Ecosavers Program.
NEP aims to help address the country’s existing garbage problem and authorities have projected 40 percent increase in waste generation during the next decade.
NEP encourages the enrollees to gather recyclable trash in their homes then bring the materials to their respective schools for weighing and collecting by accredited junkshops and recyclers.
This will enable these youngsters to help clean up the environment while earning corresponding credits for their efforts.
“Our aim is to come up with guidelines for helping the enrollees open respective bank savings accounts using such credits,” NEP consultant Vener Garcia said Thursday.
Vener was talking with reporters on the side of the program’s Metro Manila launch which the environment and education departments spearheaded in Manila’s Arroceros Forest Park.
He said NEP’s steering committee will review, for possible approval, the guidelines’ draft which a technical working group prepared earlier.
Dept. of Education Sec. Armin Luistro said talks with Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas already commenced to pursue the matter.
“We’re coordinating with BSP so each enrollee can have bank savings of some PhP200 at the school year’s end,” he reported during the launch.
He estimated such savings based on the assumption an enrollee will earn PhP1 from collecting recyclables during each school day.
The Philippines has an average 200 school days per year, DepEd noted.
“With credits earned from collecting recyclables, public school enrollees in Metro Manila alone can collectively accummulate bank savings of about PhP420 million annually,” Luistro said, citing earlier projections for NEP.
He said Metro Manila has nearly 2.1 million public school enrollees in government’s 517 elementary and 246 high schools there.
Government is initially implementing NEP in Metro Manila but targets covering other areas as well once the program’s steering committee approves the guidelines’ final version, Garcia said.