Two environmental groups have called on the public to conduct pre-Undas tomb cleaning in a way that does not result in environmental pollution and eventually makes people sick.
The EcoWaste Coalition and the Mother Earth Foundation urged the public to follow the provisions of Republic Act 9003 and corresponding local ordinances as tombs are cleaned and prepared for All Saints' and All Souls' Day on Nov. 1 and 2.
RA 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, emphasizes the importance of eco-friendly practices in solid waste management, which will contribute to solid waste prevention and volume reduction, and, ultimately, to the protection of public health and the environment.
While the law encourages waste separation at the source, reuse, recycling, composting, and other environmentally friendly practices, it outlaws anti-environmental practices such as littering, open dumping, open burning, and other polluting activities.
Mother Earth Foundation Chairperson Sonia Mendoza said “ensuring ecological waste management as prescribed by RA 9003 during the pre-Undas clean-up will prevent and reduce the generation of garbage and toxins, and make our visits to the tombs of our dearly departed more pleasant and safe.”
Meanwhile, EcoWaste Coalition’s Jove Benosa said garbage from the clean-up of tombs adds to the huge amounts of rubbish hauled from gravesites before and especially after Undas.
“Implementing RA 9003 will surely trim down the tons of mixed trash collected from cemeteries and buried somewhere else,” said Benosa.
The groups reminded the public to follow the following dos and don'ts when decorating the tombs of their deceased loved ones:
- Do follow the cemetery’s policy against littering, open dumping and open burning (and cigarette smoking, too).
- Don’t burn fallen leaves, branches, plastics and other discards to avoid generating health-damaging toxic fumes.
- Do separate biodegradables (grass cuttings, plant trimmings, etc.) from recyclables (cardboard, paper, tin cans, glass and plastic bottles, etc.) from the clean-up work.
- Don’t throw garbage in someone else’s tomb. Be guided by the golden rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
- Do bring the segregated discards to the cemetery’s Materials Recovery Facility or the designated collection area.
- Don’t leave behind used bottles, cans and anything that can collect and hold water; dengue mosquitoes lay their eggs in water-filled containers.
- Do give the tombs of your loved ones a fresh coat of lead-safe paint; but refrain from dry sanding or scraping surfaces that might be coated with paints containing lead to avoid spreading lead-contaminated dust.