Waste-free 2018 Sinulog?
Everyone is familiar with the images of the Sinulog – the solemn procession, the mammoth crowd of devotees, the colorful costumes and grand presentations. However, everyone is also aware of the tons of garbage left behind by Sinulog devotees and visitors that are collected all over the streets of Cebu City!
This time, as thousands of devotees of our Sto. Niño flock to Cebu City from this week till Sunday, can we expect the devotees to remember to responsibly take care of their trash as well?
Can we also all include in our prayers the special petition that every devotee and guest during the Sinulog's religious and secular celebrations not throw their trash carelessly?
Can everyone take on their responsibility as God's steward by not littering even just for this Sinulog? Hopefully, the Church and other religious groups will join in the campaign to make Sinulog trash-free by issuing reminders for their followers to responsibly manage their waste for this year's January 21st Sinulog celebration.
We also call on all businesses, offices, schools, and communities to do their share to start a waste-free Sinulog this year.
They can join the Sinulog 2018 Basura Watch campaign of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office and set up eco-stations for the collection of segregated waste in their respective locations. Or they can send volunteers to the ecostations to be set up by CCENRO.
The eco-stations will have color-segregated disposal containers for different types of waste: 1.) orange for residual waste like rubber, textiles, oil, detergents, cleaners, paints, diapers; 2.) biodegradable waste like food waste, fruit peels, tissues, wood, and leaves; 3.) non-biodegradable waste like plastic bag, plastic cups, sacks, plastic wrappers, styrofoam; and, 4.) recyclable waste (plastic bottle, glass bottle, newspaper, paper bags, cans).
An orientation was scheduled Friday, January 12 but volunteers can still join. Contact Lito Vasquez at 253-6362. We commend Nida Cabrera and all those involved in this pro-active move to better manage Sinulog waste. If successful, the Basura Watch project can be implemented beyond Sinulog and involving all the communities of Cebu City ultimately!
For this year's Sinulog, we encourage everyone to bring home their own garbage by bringing their own plastic or waste disposal container. If this is difficult, check out this year's eco stations in various areas to properly segregate your waste. Watch out and follow this advice because this year, strict compliance will be implemented, with citations issued to those caught littering.
We have also suggested to Cabrera, the involvement of the barangays closest to the ecostations so that they will understand the merits of a waste-free environment. CCENRO can even sponsor a contest for the best organized, cleanest, and most effective segregated waste collection eco-stations – with winning barangays given the proceeds from the sale of collected sorted waste!
Students and schools located in communities and the eco-stations can also be led to realize and joyfully appreciate and learn alternative, inexpensive, but effective waste management with this Sinulog Basura Waste campaign!
Everyone has to be involved in making our city, our community, our households clean and waste-free. Practice makes perfect. We hope this Basura Watch campaign will allow everyone to realize that the solution to waste is in everyone's hands, literally. If all learn how to properly manage, segregate, and dispose their garbage, can you imagine what a wonderful city, community, and home everyone will live in?
Let us all do our share to make this possible! Say no to waste!
May this active, participatory, responsible waste management be our prayer to Sto. Niño this 2018 Sinulog!