Mayor Benjamin Magalong encouraged barangay officials and residents to support the ongoing trash collection campaign in the city for a possible upcycling venture that will convert certain plastic waste materials into sturdy school armchairs.
The mayor urged residents to segregate and store the following single-use plastic materials instead of throwing them away for use in the upcycling program:
* Sachet cleaned and dried
* Bottle caps and rings; and
* Bubble wrap LDPE.
The collected materials may be turned over to the barangay halls, which will handle the disposal of such materials.
Barangay heads had been instructed to receive the collected trash and to temporarily store them in their materials recovery facilities until these reached the target weight of 35 kilograms.
With this weight, a sturdy adult-size armchair may be produced with the help of an upcycling company specializing in said technology.
The mayor also asked the punong barangays to cooperate and to encourage their constituents to practice segregation and collection of said plastic materials.
“Finally we have this opportunity to transform some of our waste into something useful and beneficial. Let us take this opportunity to reduce the waste that we are discarding, waste that otherwise end up either in the city’s collection points or along roads or waterways. It’s either these be tansformed into something that can benefit us or be an added burden and cause damage to our health and safety. Let us choose the former,” the mayor said.
Even if the upcycling venture terms are still on the drawing board, the collection drive was started to drum up awareness and encourage the cooperation of the community.
This will also determine the residents’ receptiveness to such programs meant to hasten the city’s shift to circular economy and implement strategies on waste reduction and conversion to useful resources for sustainability. -Baguio City Public Information Office