Daanbantayan town to launch ‘Basura Mo, Bigas Ko’ program on June 24

The municipality of Daanbantayan in northern Cebu is urging residents to barter their plastic bottles stuffed with garbage with a kilo of rice starting on Monday, June 24. /Photo from the Municipality of Bantayan Facebook page

CEBU CITY, Philippines – The municipality of Daanbantayan in northern Cebu is launching on Monday, June 24, 2019, its “Basura Mo, Bigas Ko” program, which aims to encourage town residents to collect transparent plastic bottles stuffed with shredded plastic and other garbage that they will exchange for a kilo of rice.

The program will be implemented under the supervision of the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (Menro).

And mind you, the municipal government is giving out premium rice (not NFA rice) in exchange for the bottles that they will collect, said the Municipality of Daanbantayan in a Facebook post at around noontime today, June 21.

Under the program, town residents, organizations and even schools are encouraged to barter one kilo of eco-brick or a transparent bottle stuffed with shredded garbage for a kilo of rice.

The bottles should contain styrofoam, cigarette butts, cellophane, food wrappers, and cloth that “must be very compacted and hard.”

Barter is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. from Mondays to Fridays at the Menro office that is located at the Tesda Compound in Sitio Guimbawan in Barangay Poblacion.

Program implementation will continue “until we are out of rice,” sad the town’s advisory.

Those who wanted to participate in the barter are also encouraged to bring their own eco-bags or sacks that will be used as container for the premium rice that they will be getting from Menro.

“This exchange program is (on) a first come, first serve basis,” said the announcement posted on the Municipality of Daanbantayan FB page.