Beach cleaning

Since President Duterte rang the alarm bell on the Boracay beach mess, all of the Philippines are cleaning up land and sea. Bohol, Oslob, Coron, Mactan. Suddenly Filipinos have become environment-conscious. It has become a great opportunity for them to flaunt their good deeds, a welcome chance to capture the limelight.

But that a foreigner took the initiative to clean up Olango Island long before the present rush. He is Bjorn Norman from Norway, the founder of Wayback Olango. Together with his partner Rosa Jumao-as, they are taking care of drug surrenderers in cooperation with Sabang’s Barangay Anti-Drug Abuse Council (BADAC).

One of the many ways to bring former drug users back to a productive life is cleaning up the beaches in Olango. Bjorn feels indignant when he goes along the pier to the passengers’ terminal and sees hundreds of plastic bottles and trash of all kinds in the corners where the north wind had driven ashore all the items flung overboard a boat across the Hilutungan Channel.

For him and most of foreigners, it is an insufferable eyesore. It gives a very bad impression to arriving tourists and is a reason for them not to return to this island that basically has great potentials to become a major tourist spot. Worse, I read comments on the internet saying, “Don’t go to Olango, trash and dirt everywhere!”

Cleanup drives are held by Korean and Japanese youth groups almost every year, hauling tons of garbage for the public solid waste service to bring to the dumpsite. They also tried trash segregation. But Filipinos continue littering. Shortly after cleanup, land and sea are as dirty as before.

What is needed is a major information campaign. Cleanliness is the responsibility of the local government units (LGUs). The strategy must be garbage avoidance. The Department of Education failed to educate the youth in that respect.

Mandaue City prescribes paper bags instead of plastic bags in stores. It makes a great impact on health. Cebu offers sardines for trash, also an efficient way to avoid waste in nature. Waste to energy systems, composting and hazardous garbage treatment are environment friendly.

But what really would matter is a change in consumer habits. Buy a cake of soap instead of liquid soap that comes with a non-reusable plastic container. Bring your water in a re-used bottle when you go out instead of buying one-way plastic-bottled water. Do not buy junk food. The colors on the wrappers contain poisonous heavy metals.

Buy Baygon in refill sachets instead of ozone-killing FClCH -driven spray containers. Buy rechargeable batteries instead of throwaway batteries. Buy only what you need, refrain from impulse and frustration purchases. It mostly becomes trash soon. Use old motor oil for lubrication instead of changing oil in the wilderness. Mother earth takes revenge.

Filipinos say they are patriots and love their country. But why do they maltreat land and sea so badly? Read more and see pictures on www.olangopost.com and facebook Wayback Olango.--Erich Wannemacher