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! 

Taking Care of IT Waste

We just had to upgrade our computers 6 months ago and it was really easy to do that in our office. The whole unit did cost a lot and we had some files on the old ones. Making sure everything on back up and working was a necessity since we are not planning to hamper our operations. Most corporations do that and to me this is mighty clear that we need to also get our old machines thrown out. We obviously do not have computer disposal systems in our part of the world so in short... we've got all our CPU stacked up right beside us. It's troublesome and takes a lot of space plus it is not going to look good as part of the interior design.



If there were some institutions like ROUND2 to do this for us we would be able to make this world a better place. Recycling is one of the ways to environmentally safe to do this. I can even think of some other things like giving these old units to far flung schools in the province that never had the luxury of having computers. It would surely help them a lot in education and make better next generation engineers or programmers. Information Technology has gone a long way and the proper disposal of its waste materials should be a priority. I'll ask people from another department to do these things and more. Maybe in the near future we wouldn't have to worry about it.

Have you thrown out old computers? Do you still have it somewhere and never knew when and how you are going to get rid of it? I have a good idea where to get it taken cared of now. You should too!

Clean Up and Save the Earth!

I still have my old CRT Monitor, old CPU and broken UPS under my table. Apparently no one is disposing it. I don't know if this should be sold by the company or just stay here since my boss paid for it already. It is really hard to get rid of junk from the office. Imagine all the stuff that gets phased out every year. Some of them end up in landfills together with the trash from the metro but there should be a proper way of disposing this. There are corporations which makes recycling electronic devices their bread and butter. I think that is the best alternative that we could do to prevent the chance of improper disposal. How can we help save the Earth when incineration on open air would be the answer of the local government? The huge amount of toxic chemicals would surely be hazardous for you, me and the people you love!

I have been campaigning about this in the past and I think it would be nice for me to rekindle my passion for environmental matters again. Maybe I could start by recommending institutions that can properly dispose of these things and get something in return for corporate spending. That will be a good thing to suggest. I remember a friend once said that you can't help save the Earth without starting in your own backyard. It's simple but if you think about it; it does make sense!

Would you like to be the next hero?! I know I would!