Waste ‘used’ to fund program
CONTRARY to common belief, the responsibility of throwing away your waste doesn’t stop at disposing them in trash bins. Some wastes, like batteries, can be toxic to human health and the environment when mishandled at waste disposal.
Because Hedcor continues to look for ways to improve the state of the community and the environment, it forged a partnership with Oriental and Motolite Marketing Corporation and Philippine Business for Social Progress, Inc. for the Balik Baterya program.
In this program, Hedcor gets to trade its Used Lead Acid Batteries (ULABs) to OMMC for proper disposal under accredited recyclers. Each ULAB disposed holds a trade-in value which will then be forwarded to PBSP to fund projects identified by Hedcor.
Among various health and socio-economic projects, PBSP actively endorses projects on education such as the Learning Enhancement Assistance Package, known also as Project LEAP. This goal aligns with Hedcor’s desire of advancing communities through education.
“This program doesn’t only help fulfill a company’s responsible business practices but also helps in terms of funding projects for the community,” shared PBSP’s Regional Manager Garibalde Alvin Enriques who also added how the Balik Baterya program has been around for more than 10 years already, with over 260 partner companies.
OMMC Representative Mark Lopez also expressed his gratitude over the interest in their program.
“We really welcome companies who actively take part in the Balik Baterya program because it helps address community and environmental issues. I hope our partnership will be more harmonious in the long run,” said Lopez.
In his message, Hedcor’s Assistant Vice President for Operations Leo Lungay also shared how each party meets eye to eye with their goals.
“Our operations depend on the status of mother nature, thus we are very active and dedicated in initiatives that ensure that sustainability is met,” Lungay shared.
“Involvement in this program is one of those. And seeing the goals of your organization and this project, it appears that we all have the same objective--we are all for the betterment of the environment and the communities,” he added.
Hedcor is a run-ofriver hydropower arm of AboitizPower. It currently operates 22 hydropower facilities in North Luzon and Mindanao and holds a total gross capacity of 277.36MW of clean and renewable energy.(pr-hedcor)