BACOLOD CITY - The city government here has launched on Monday, Sept. 5, a waste segregation program which enables residents to avail some grocery items in exchange of recyclable items.

The program dubbed ‘Trash to Cashback,’ is in partnership with IPM Construction and Development Corporation and Basic Environmental Systems and Technologies Inc.
According to Lester Mateo of IPM Construction and Development Corporation, ‘Trash to Cashback’ is an incentivized waste segregation program wherein all recyclable items such as papers, plastic, and metals can be brought at their drop off center at the Bacolod City Government Center (BCGC).
Mateo said residents will be able to earn environmental points which they can later use to redeem grocery items or school supplies at the booth. The drop off center is open from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Mateo said that a person can drop off at least one kilogram of recycled items. Every kilogram is equivalent to one environmental point, he added.
Mateo said they are also planning to eventually allow the residents to use their points in purchasing food or services, with their partner outlets.
Mateo said they are tasked to ensure that the collected recyclable items will go to recycling companies which will process or reproduce them into new products.
Meanwhile, Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo ‘Albee’ Benitez said they are trying out the said program to check people’s reaction to it.
Benitez revealed during a flag-raising ceremony at the BCGC on Monday that one of his priority projects is to rid the city of wastes, but admitted it is hard to discipline people and make them follow the proper waste segregation.
Thus, they thought of the said idea to encourage people to recycle their waste in exchange for a cash incentive.
Benitez also said that one of the plans of his administration is to build a centralized recovery recycling complex here to recycle waste.