Need Help for GArbage Problem

danika_bookwormdanika_bookworm Posts: 162
edited September 2006 in A Moving Train
I really need some help. We have a BIG garbage problem in our city (TAcloban City, Philippines). I'm trying to do my part by recycling paper and cellophane and using my own cloth bag when shopping. THing is, I think I'm the only person who does her part in solving the problem.

I design and make clothes, jewelry and other fashion accessories and when I put up my stuff for consignment, I give the store who sells my stuff some paper bags so they won't have to use plastic bags when selling stuff. Does that help or aggravate the garbage problem?

I really, really want to educate people about how to help the city. It's hard here because BOTH the government and the citizens ignore the problem. HELP!
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Danika,

    Does your local community have a waste management system? What do people in your community typically do with their trash? How serious is the problem -- is this just an issue of unsightly litter or are there existing health problems?

    A great place to start is with educating those around you. It sounds like you're doing a good thing already by setting a great example. The cloth shopping bags are great -- have you considered trying to help offer these to others in your community? Furthermore, have you considered forming a group of other like-minded citizens to help organize and participate in local clean-up work?

    It's a very tough issue if people simply do not care. In my experience, every community has people who take a lot of pride in the appearance of their city but also has people who don't. I think the best start is organizing with the former to help spread the message to the latter and work together to address the problem.
  • Danika,

    Does your local community have a waste management system?

    Yes we do have a waste management system: but it just simply throws tons of garbage to, I don't know where, without segregating it.
    What do people in your community typically do with their trash?

    Oh, either they ignore the trash on the street or throw it around themselves.
    How serious is the problem -- is this just an issue of unsightly litter or are there existing health problems?

    I guess there are also health problems because of the garbage, especially in the part of the city I live in. I live on a peninsula so the sea is very near our home. GArbage and human waste is present on the sea water.
    A great place to start is with educating those around you. It sounds like you're doing a good thing already by setting a great example. The cloth shopping bags are great -- have you considered trying to help offer these to others in your community? Furthermore, have you considered forming a group of other like-minded citizens to help organize and participate in local clean-up work?

    We've tried clean-ups in college, and radio stations would sponsor beach clean-ups every year, but I don't hear of clean-ups anymore. I want to start with the businessmen here becuase our city is mainly an industrial one, with a lot of buying and selling, so I think these businessmen do not bother conceptualizing better ways to package a product because it already has its own package. I'm glad to hear in the news that somebody is promoting "bayong" or straw bags for shopping.
    It's a very tough issue if people simply do not care. In my experience, every community has people who take a lot of pride in the appearance of their city but also has people who don't. I think the best start is organizing with the former to help spread the message to the latter and work together to address the problem.

    Some people are starting to hate me because I try to tell them where to throw things and care a lot about the appearance of the city... It's really hard to educate the people here because food and money are hard to come by here, so to care about their environs is a bit too much for them. But what I want to teach them is that their health, homes, and lives would be better if they just put more discipline into garbage management. Still, our impoverished people here cannot afford to think of the future when they do not have anything to eat in the present. This is the big problem....
  • I heard about this on NPR a while ago:

    Don't Trash it, Tote it!

    http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62661,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3
    I burst, out
    I'm transformed!
  • votegirl wrote:
    I heard about this on NPR a while ago:

    Don't Trash it, Tote it!

    http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,62661,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_3

    Thank for the article! I may create new fashion accesories with trash... Now, how would I do so?
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