Waste Crisis: Streams of Floating Disease

by: Alfred E. Delos Santos

Swimming on the trash— Lots of children, especially those who are living in
impoverished areas are often seen playing and diving in a water full of trash, which made them
highly prone to a lot of health implications.

Philippines is known for having beautiful islands and sceneries of nature, but did you
know that the country stands for being the top 3 world’s-largest ocean polluter? For years, we
haven’t taken any action regarding the settlement of our waste management problems. Masses of
plastic trash swirling in waterways, garbage clogging the drainage and huge stinking dump sites
are among the most visible manifestations of the waste crisis in the Philippines.

The Philippines generates 2.7 million tons of plastic waste annually and half a million
tons or 20% of it are leak into the oceans, a report stated from break free from plastic. According
to Froilan Grate, Executive Director of the Philippines branch of the Global Alliance for
Incinerator Alternatives, an absence of garbage collection services in secondary cities and many
of the country’s smaller islands are largely to blame for the overwhelming amount of marine
plastics coming from the country. However, 18 years later, there are still more than 900 open
dump sites across the country. “Many secondary cities do not have waste collection at all,” he
explains, adding that segregation and recycling efforts are scant, regardless of the legislation.

Why should we avoid using synthetic products?

Generally, the Philippines produces about 35,000 tons of garbage daily and more than
8,600 tons per day in Metro Manila alone, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) expert said.
Considering the produce garbage still did not change and continue to arise, we might end up as a
country drowning in garbage.

Before such sachets were introduced, Filipinos, followed the “tingi” culture, where
shoppers took their own reusable containers to their neighborhood’s sari-sari store when they
bought small servings of vinegar, soy sauce and other condiments. When the sachet and other
laminated plastic products were introduced, many manufacturers and industrial companies used
the concept, which actually sells really well because of its convenience and the less cost, in short
people patronize the use of sachets without knowing the aftermath of its creation.

Not only our land masses are affected, but also the bodies of water. Many marine wildlife
was affected due to the unpracticed manner of proper waste management. Now, the fishes that
we eat are also eating plastic trashes (micro plastics) in the ocean.

Because of the plastics clogging the water ways and streams specially to sewers, canals,
and drainage that cause many health implications to children and even adults such as:
leptospirosis, influenza, cold and flu, infections to skin and other body parts, and cholera. It is
also a place where insects and parasites carrying diseases usually to live such as mosquitos
carrying dengues, Entamoeba histolytica can get amebiasis, Drancunculus medinensis can get
guinea worm, Schistosoma parasites can get schistosomiasis, and Giardia intestinalis a parasite
that can cause diarrhea.

Some families are residing beside the river ways. Their children play a lot in rivers even
it is full of plastic trash that they throw and floating around their homes. That’s why children
there are prone to any kind of water-borne diseases.

Despite of all environmental problems and garbage crisis, many organizations, including
National Government Agencies (NGA’s) and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO’s) started
to take actions and spread awareness about our nation’s waste crisis.

A Hope in Our Hands

These are the 4 R’s and an E— ways that everybody can do. First R is Reduce, to
efficiently reduce plastic pollution, there is an evident need of reducing our usage of plastic. It
means changing our everyday behaviors, not using plastic when there is a better alternative and
only using plastic when strictly necessary. Second R is Reuse, plastic may cause pollution when
poorly managed but it has lots of advantages too, such as being resistant. Many plastic items can
therefore be reused or used for different purposes. Before throwing plastic items, it is important
to consider how they can be reused. Third R is Recycle, plastic recycling is consisting of
collecting plastic wastes and reprocessing it into new products, to reduce the amount of plastic in
the waste stream such as canals, sewers, drainage, and even rivers. The last R is Recover, to
convert waste into resources (such as electricity, heat, compost and fuel) through thermal and
biological means. Resource Recovery occurs after reduce, reuse and recycle have been
attempted. The E stands for Educate, another crucial solution is education in order to increase
awareness and behavioral change. It is also a way to eradicate waste crisis for the future
generation.

Implementing the 4 R’s and an E is a sure way to cure our country that is prone to many
health implications, children and future generation would be likely the one will suffer. Their
health is our priority while saving our mother earth. “A good environment has a great health in
it” with some clean and healthy environment citizens will live longer than expected.

We should start to decrease the usage of plastics in order to prevent more clogging water
streams that causes health issues and implications not only to our lives but also for the future
generations. Start the change within yourself.