Hundreds of tons of election junks and thrash including paraphernalia and tarpaulins will be recycled into useful items like ecobricks and ecobags by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the EcoWaste Coalition.
MMDA Chairman Romando Artes said they have fielded out their ‘Operation Baklas (tear down) 2022’ teams which include partners from LGUs since Tuesday to clean up Metro Manila of pol junks. The cleanup is expected to be completed in two weeks.
“We have many teams deployed for the teardown and we are assisted by other branches of government including LGUs),” Artes said, adding that 98 tons of junks were collected on Tuesday and another 254 tons on Wednesday.
Despite the massive amounts of junk to be collected, he said these will not be dumped into sanitary landfills and instead will be recycled into hollow blocks and bricks at the existing brick-making facility at the Vitas Pumping Station.
“We have a waste granulator where we will ground these tarpaulins and pieces of plastic for ecobrick-making,” he said, adding the ecobricks) are used in the rehabilitation of parks and sidewalks in Metro Manila that was launched in 2021 and funded by the World Bank.
The project, he said reduces waste. Instead of being thrown in landfills, the junk plastics become useful ingredients of bricks and hollow blocks and bricks. He added that in a recent meeting the EcoWaste Coalition requested, they were given tarpaulins collected by the MMDA to be made into ecobags.
To help ensure the cleanup in Metro Manila and the rest of the country, Artes also called on election candidates and their supporters to help take down their election posters and other paraphernalia, noting that “if these are not cleaned up, they will likely end up in canals and cause floods when the rains come.”