By Nel Andrade TANAY, Rizal – Waste segregation and recycling in this scenic and tourism hotspot town of Rizal will be involving the community as part of its pro-environment programs and projects. This, after the local government, continues to encourage its residents, from as early as pre-school age, to get involved in waste management initiatives by offering contests and raffles in exchange for recyclable wastes. Tanay Environment Officer Suzette Villanueva said the local government has launched the “Basura Mo, Palit Gamit” and the “Basuraffle” as initiatives for local residents to turn over their waste to the local government in exchange for raffle tickets, giving them a chance to win home appliances and school items. The “Basura Mo Palit Gamit Eswela” is one of the programs of the local government that motivates school children from pre-school to elementary to engage in segregation of solid waste at home and at school, and have the items such as newspapers, cans, PET bottles, and plastic items exchanged for basic school supplies like writing pads, notebooks, pencils, ball pens, sharpener and other school supplies. Villanueva said during the early implementation of the program a few years ago, the municipal government noticed the eagerness and involvement of the parents of the school children in the waste to school supplies exchange program prompting the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) to add non-school supplies items such as fertilizers and kitchen utilities to the items that the students can receive once they surrender the specific waste recyclables. The Basuraffle, on the other hand follows the point system wherein each kilo of the recyclable materials has an equivalent point in the raffle program that is done on a regular basis. The town is one of the few municipalities in the region that pioneered the ban on disposable plastics and Styrofoam as food and beverage containers. Plastic straws for beverages and single-use plastic bags for dry grocery items are also among the items prohibited in the town. In the town’s public market, old newspapers have replaced the single-use plastic bags as containers for non-wet items and paper cups are being used as replacement for plastic cups as part of the waste management programs of the local government. (Nel B. Andrade)