Bee farm, waste solutions eyed at the city’s eco-park

A bee farm and some transformative solutions to the city’s waste management have been eyed at the former Cebu Zoo, now the Cebu City Eco-Park, in Barangay Kalunasan, this city.

The bee farm is seen to enhance pollination within the park and to provide an avenue for education.

Oliver Patlingrao, a retired agriculturist through the city’s Sugboanon channel, said bees are necessary to promote pollination and enhance the ecosystem of a place, like the entire eco-park.

“Pollination is needed to develop agriculture, to help increase food production,” Patlingrao said.

The bee farm can be educational and informative for students who will visit the eco-park.

Along with this, Patlingrao expressed his willingness to help the city put up the bee farm at CCEP.

Aside from that, Pantlingrao is also willing to help CCEP set up its edible landscaping, the growing of organic vegetables, fruits, herbs, and medicinal plants by applying landscaping techniques.

Also, the transformative solutions as part of waste management in communities near the waterfronts and waterways are also being eyed.

The Coastal Conservation and Education Foundation, Inc. (CCEF) headed by Evelyn Dequit presented a sample recycled waste and organic-based products that barangays the Coastal Management Board covers can produce through community training.

Some eco-marine lumber made of recycled plastics with aluminum that can be used for house flooring and walling, some signboards and plastic bags made of 100 percent cassava were being presented that can also be produced by the residents of the city.

“We want to transform whatever waste we generate,” Dequit said, as she underscored the value of the Extended Product Responsibility (EPR) Law that nationalized the extended producer responsibility on plastic packaging waste.

Republic Act 11898 defines the EPR that amended in part RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. It is an inclusive, integrative, and impactful approach to reduce plastic pollution.

Through EPR, Deguit said enterprise generators must participate and become partners in arriving at beneficial solutions to the waste problem.

EPR is an environmental policy approach that encourages plastic waste reduction through elimination of unnecessary plastic packaging of products; development of more environmentally friendly and recyclable packaging design; and the recovery of plastic packaging from the trash in order to reuse them or recycle them back into the production process. -