What Does It Take to Have a #WorldWithoutWaste?

A couple years ago, Coca Cola launched a global campaign with a very bold and ambitious goal. The aim was to collect and recycle a bottle or can of what the company sells by 2030. Year after year, they stepped up, become successful, and that also included the Philippines. Their movement in the country has spawned different models including this NGO called Alternative Indigenous Development Foundation, Inc. (AIDFI). A component of what they did in 2019 called Blastik made use of recycling centers that is funded by The Coca-Cola Foundation. In it, they learned to spread awareness about environmental efforts, earn and provide for themselves, and recycle a lot of plastic. As you may know, a lot of companies make products with packaging and these efforts would hopefully make a dent on that challenge. Coca-Cola currently is recycling over 93% of their waste in bottling plants and now utilize plant based renewable material called PlantBottle.

Blastik's success as a pilot project continued in a partnership wtih PeacePond Farmers Organization based in Binalbagan, Negros Occidental. Farmers from this organization have empowered their community and provided environmental education so they would learn waste segregation, recycling and putting up livelihood projects via workshops, webinars which they host in a regular basis. The Blastik Project taught them how collecting, recycling used and clean plastic bottles would be beneficial and create opportunities for townsfolk so they could earn from re-using plastics in projects, so they could feed their families. Beneficiary Jo Guanco (who's a 53yo farmer from the same place) says "The Blastic Project showed us how important it is to teach our neighbors about segregation and recycling. We are also working with other communities these days so they too can coordinate and schedule collection of plastic bottles in towns, nearby areas and offices, of which some personally call us so we could collect it for them. We continue to be Blastic Eco Rangers til now."

The movement has gone to other communities like Bakyas Community in Oringao, Kabankalan Negros Occidental, Elite Ads Corp in Paranaque City, and Elite Ads Corporation in Carmona Cavite. They also have active partnerships with Seda Hotel in Bacolod City plus Southland College in Kabankalan also. During the pandemic, they continue to process almost 17 tons worth more or less of mixed bottles, bottle caps, plastic sachets and labels too. As of now, Coca-Cola Foundation is supporting over 40 zero waste communities around the countries, and are continuing to grow more in the next few months. Ms. Cecile Alcantara puts this as Blastik's initial success, and says "we are really happy and excited about it."

If you want to know more about their initiatives, just head on to coca-colacompany.com/reports/business-environmental-scoal-governance-report-2020 or their social channels and be part of that change, make the #WorldWithoutWaste possible today! 

Personal Collection Goes Green

Filipino owned and operated Personal Collection Direct Selling Inc. just recently laucnhed their flagship products Tuff TBC (Toilet Bowl Cleanser) and sof & mmmmm..... Concentrated Fabric Conditioner in their all new green biodegradable packaging. This is in line with their stern commitment on their core values and mission to provide a Great Life for every Filipino.

 

This new packaging is pretty good as it doesn't need to decompose in landfills for thousands of years, as it disintegrates in around 5-10 which is good for the environment. You can also up-cycle it in different ways and doesn't affect what's inside it. Your cleanser and conditioner stays fresh, able to clean, and reliable as always.

 

 Tuff TBC kills up to 99.99% of disease causing germs, bacteria and makes sure you are safe at home, offices, public spaces. sof & mmmm.... on the other hand is a fabric conditioner that contains perfume micro crystals that prevent those amoy kulob moments. It also helps your clothes from getting stretched, discoloration, fading, and makes your clothes smell fresh up to 30 days (when you keep it).

The company advocates #GreenLifeGreatLife and makes sure to deliver products that are of quality and use packaging that have bodegradable solutions. They are also planning to do mangrove planting and reforestation as part of their environmental efforts. This is a nationwide campaign to help minimize/rid of single use plastic ans wastes, hoping that the public would also follow suit.

I am so happy to see your efforts, I use the Tuff brand too and knowing that the company behind it is this responsible, I would really look forward to my next purchase and see how it goes to good deeds like these.

Gretchen Ho Joins "Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo" (BMPM) Efforts

Gretchen Ho made headlines when she started off as a Lady Eagle in UAAP a few years back. She's also made waves as a host, VJ and the better half of lover boy Robi Domingo, but during this small gathering at ELJ Building, she's putting the fame, influence and popularity to good use as she joins the "Bayan Mo Ipatrol Mo" family. The organization is part of ABSCBN's vast network that delves on citizen journalism, voter education and responsible reportage. Gretchen is already making herself useful by joining in on recent symposiums, workshops and telling the generation today how becoming a part of BMPM can actually make this election season a better one. She's been in different parts of the country already and taking much of her time to educate the youth, voters and non voters how to put to good use their voice on social media. Blogging per se like what we're doing is also part of that since we also are disseminating information to different sets of audiences and letting them know different ways how to help the country and voting public.

The forums and workshops will be done extensively before the actual election day and they'll be needing help from the likes of ordinary people like you and me. Citizen journalists in whatever way, shape or form, may actually send their reports to BMPM here and may get featured with ABSCBN's news channels, TV Patrol, Bandila and others. Ms. Jing Castañeda was also there to give her views, whilst still covering Mar and Leni in the Presidential elections. It'll be a great venue to tell what things are happening in your side of the world. With a "learned" disposition, you can make this a place to tell a larger audience what needs to be done so that politicians won't be abusing any of your rights, the rights of the community and the general public. The symposiums and workshops are important so that students, citizens can go ahead and ask questions so a definitive answer can be given and make your efforts a good one to educate others. We can also harness social media, handle the information here online or offline and use it to decide for the greater good of the country. ABSCBN also made apps for the COMELEC so it could help the government and you.

Here are snippets of our talk yesterday afternoon.

I also asked about the challenges that they're having while doing BMPM as they somehow mentioned some parts of the country are quite difficult to go to, they have confirmed security is a concern and is of utmost importance. They usually go to these destinations prepared so even if they may have some "not so much fans" of the network, they do what they have to do in order to achieve their goal of educating the Filipino voter no matter where they are. I felt that was a little assuring, hopefully people would be more receptive, participate and make a clear, sound judgment when the day to choose our leaders would come. Thank you to the people from BMPM for having us! It was a pleasure to hear from you and what you plan to do with Gretchen now that she's part of the organization.

Gretchen by the way also introduced her new blog called Woman In Action which you can find in www.gretchenho.com. She'll be posting demographics, and her causes to help with women empowerment. She feels it's her duty to use her influence and voice and act on women's issues, something we felt was a thing she's very passionate about. You may visit her blog soon for stories about that.

For more information about their cause:

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http://bmpm.abs-cbnnews.com/