What this teaches us is that waste management is a local distributedproblem and that solutions need the same structure. The more wedeviate from understanding just that, the more likely abnormalitieswill occur. Inducing individual effort nicely collapses the endcosts.
Even better, this shows us that these protocols can be applieduniversally.
So much human capital has been expended on the urban environment, ithas been forgotten that best practice will evolve to the urbanagrovillage which retains sufficient human and financial capital tooptimize its life way.
From Dream toReality in the Philippines
Sunday, 02 December2012 10:28
By AnneLarracas and Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives,
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13093-from-dream-to-reality-in-the-philippines
“EnvironmentalPossibilities: Zero Waste” features new ways of thinking, acting,and shaping government policy that are circling the globe. Each week,we highlight a success story in the zero waste movement, excerptedfrom a report by the Global Alliance for IncineratorAlternatives (GAIA). GAIA is a powerful worldwide alliance of morethan 650 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, andindividuals in over 90 countries. Their collective goal is a just,toxic-free world without incineration. Other Worlds is excited topromote the work of GAIA and the organized communities it works with,and hopes that the stories inspire you and others to begin movingyour home, town or city, nation, and planet toward zero waste.
The city of Alaminosis pioneering zero waste in the Philippines with an energetic fusionof bottom-up planning and community participation. Under a new law,the public and all levels of government share responsibility formanaging waste. Villages, local officials, and non-profit allies areworking together to meet the law’s goals. They have createdcomposting systems and sorting facilities, and almost eliminated openburning and dumping as a result. The outcome has been stunning:whereas in 2009 almost every city dumping field had a pile burning,there were almost none two years later. With sky-high wasteseparation and composting rates, Alaminos has become a trend-setterfor other Filipino cities.
Planning for theFuture
As is typical for afast-growing city, non-biodegradable packaging and products havebecome a part of everyday life in Alaminos. In recent years,non-recyclable products have spread, their problematic effectscompounded by a large tourist population that brings in and disposesplastic packaging. Until recently, waste was managed almost wholly bymunicipal governments that typically hauled all waste to a centraldumpsite.
In 2000, thePhilippines passed a waste management law, known as Republic Act9003. According to the law, the publicly elected councils of all the39 villages in Alaminos City must implement a comprehensive solidwaste management plan. The law also mandates that each villageconstruct a recycling center, separate garbage, create a villagecomposting system, and collect different types of waste separately.Furthermore, the law outlaws open burning and uncontrolled dumpsites.
Regardless, wastemanagement programs at the village level in Alaminos - as in most ofthe country - were still non-existent by 2009. Attempting to make itsvillages conform, the city of Alaminos first tried encouraging, andlater mandating, that they take more responsibility for wastemanagement. Neither approach worked. Alaminos still maintained acentral dumpsite, and waste was collected by the city only in 14 ofthe 39 villages. The remaining villages had to deal with their ownwaste, which led to widespread open burning and dumping. Householdsdid not practice separating their refuse into organics, recycling,and trash. The city still rarely used the recycling center that ithad built in 2004.
It became clear thatthe city needed to redouble its efforts and to spark communityinvolvement and excitement in order to achieve success.
The Birth of a ZeroWaste City
In August 2009, theGlobal Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) proposed apartnership with the city government. The following month, the ZeroWaste Alaminos project was born. GAIA provided one staff member forthe project team, zero waste trainings, and support to villageleaders as they drafted their own waste management plans. GAIA alsoprovided financial support for printing educational materials, buyingshredders for organics and plastics, awarding mini-grants forvillages to build eco-sheds and purchase vehicles, and more. For itspart, the city provided two full-time employees, transportationfor the team, logistical support for all activities and trainings,technical assistance, and support in strategic planning for thevillages.
After two years, tenvillages had achieved full compliance with the 2000 waste managementlaw. Five were very close. Many others were well on their way. Thezero waste team had launched rapid-fire initiatives to create theseresults, including: conducting a comprehensive survey to assess theexisting waste management practices throughout Alamitos, traveling toall 39 villages where they interviewed village chiefs, and holdingworkshops for village representatives and city officials to beginconversations about waste separation and collection, composting,relevant law, and the components of the Zero Waste Alamitos project.
After the workshops,the team held 14 months of technical consultations and assemblies inthe villages themselves. They resulted in a complete waste managementplan, including a calendar of activities, investment plans forinfrastructure, a budget with funding, and clarity about who wasresponsible for what. The plans were presented in assemblies forresidents to comment on and approve before being implemented as theblueprint for each village’s waste management program. Once thevillages had formulated their own waste management programs, theytook ownership of the project.
The project team heldseparate sessions to consult with a range of stakeholders – fromcity workers to junk store representatives to health and tourismofficials – to expand participation in implementing the law. As aresult, resorts and inns established composting facilities andimproved waste separation, tourists were informed about the strict no-littering and waste separation policies, hospitals andclinics started to separate their waste, and schools and universitiesimproved their recycling and composting practices.
Toward Zero Waste:Results
The project grew byleaps and bounds over two years. While in 2009 almost no villageshad begun implementation of the law, in 2011, 25 had local ordinanceson waste management that specifically banned open burning and dumpingand mandated household waste separation and composting. Ten villagespassed every facet of the final evaluation with flying colors, whilenine of those that did not pass were at least halfway to achievingtheir waste management goals.
A follow-up surveyshowed a high percentage of residents were separating out their waste(88% of those surveyed) and composting (53%). Fifteen villages arenow consistently implementing pure composting. Worm composting hasalso increased, and the city has provided villages and schools withworms and organic fertilizer. Seventeen villages have startedcomprehensive collection systems. Thirty-two villages have builteco-sheds which provide temporary storage for residual, hazardous,and small amounts of recyclable waste, which are then collected bythe city and brought to the city recycling facility.
Open dumping andburning decreased significantly: In 2009, almost every field had apile burning; by 2011 there were almost none.
The survey also showedcity government fully committed to the zero waste vision. The cityhas begun providing employees who were highly respected by villageleaders to serve full-time as members of the project. In 2010, thecity council passed into law the first zero waste city ordinance inthe country, a local version of the national waste management lawthat includes a stronger provision against incineration and specifieshow Alaminos will implement collection and conduct public education,among other things. This historic legislation upholds garbageseparation, sets a target for waste diversion, and prohibitsincineration.
Recently, Alaminosannounced a "No-segregation, no-collection" policy.Residents will receive a warning if their waste is not separated.After a couple of warnings, their garbage will no longer be pickedup. The city has already seen a noticeable reduction in the volume ofoverall waste. The city has considered - but not yet passed - a ban on plastic bags.
Much more needs todone to implement waste management programs in the villages – twoyears is not long enough to reverse decades of old habits. Still, thedramatic changes underway show what is possible when communities andlocal government unite their commitment and their energies.
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