Give Purita Doba your used magazines and newspapers and she’ll transform them into fashion accessories, baskets and even rosaries.
The 60-year-old Doba mastered the art of recycling neighborhood waste into useful items since she joined the “Kwarta sa Basura (Cash in Trash)” program of barangay Luz in Cebu City in 2002.
“Basta mag kugi lang gyud ka, naa gyud kay ikapalit ug bugas (If you work hard, you will always have money for your family’s meals),” she said.
Pages of glossy magazines and brochures get a new life rolled into tubes, flattened into strips and woven into bags and other items.
Doba can make one or two bags a day. She earns P60 to P150 for every item she crafts from trash.
She also gets a P4,000 monthly honorarium for working as a staffer and trainer of the barangay livelihood program.
“Mag-sige experiment sad mi ug designs aron among magamit sa among mga bag-o nga products (We always experiment with designs for our new) products,” she said.
Their bags were used as giveaways in several conventions and their hats are a top-seller in summer.
The livelihood program managed to reduce the community’s waste by 30 percent.
What used to be six to seven trips of the barangay’s garbage trucks to the Inayawan Landfill was halved since the recycling program went full swing.
Barangay Luz with a population of about 17,000 based on the 2010 population census produces 28 tons of waste daily.
Samples of the livelihood program’s crafts are displayed at the lobby of the Marriott Hotel. More can be found at the barangay hall’s second floor along Archbishop Reyes Avenue in Cebu City.
Barangay councilman Ronilio Sab-a said they are negotiating with Cebu City to allow them to have a kiosk where they can showcase and sell their products.
Just recently, three German visitors accompanied by two local guides visited the barangay hall to look at the display.
The foreigners were looking for local suppliers of items made from recycled materials for a souvenir shop they wanted to open at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.
Dabo said the Germans promised to return in September after they make final arrangements for their shop.
Livelihood
“Ma lipay gyud mi ug naay daghan nga orders kay modaku sad among kita, (We are happy everytime we have bulk orders because that would mean additional income for us),” she said.
The “Kwarta sa Basura” program now involves over a hundred housewives as well as male residents of barangay Luz.
Even children and the elderly are tapped to help produce paper strips. They earn P150 for every 1,000 strips.
Since they are allowed to bring home their raw materials, program beneficiaries still have time to attend to their children as they work.
“Na minusan gyud ang mga inahan nga mo dangop sa barangay hall kay nag away tungod sa chismis or sa tong-its kay busy na man sa ilang trabaho(The cases of mothers going to the barangay hall because of disputes caused by gossip or gambling decreased because they are busy with livelihood),” Dabo said.
Proceeds
Sab-a, head of the barangay’s solid waste, environment and social services committee, said they came out with their “Kwarta sa Basura” program on Oct. 2002 in compliance with Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.
While their initial purpose was to reduce garbage volume by 25 percent, the program also also provided livelihood for unemployed mothers.
During the first two years, they required residents to bring their recyclables to the barangay hall on Saturdays so these could be sold to junk shops.
Proceeds were deposited in individual passbook accounts which they opened with a local bank and can only be withdrawn after six months.
Take-home gifts
In 2004, the barangay started to organize housewives and teach them handicraft-making, Sab-a said. Initially, they produced bags, hats and wine and penholders made from discarded Tetra Pak packaging materials.
They also make rosaries, necklaces and bracelets from rolls of tiny paper strips.
Sab-a said this year, they started to train male residents to make lampshades out of discarded electric fans.
“We don’t have a problem with having a variety of products to display because they sell quickly. Participants of educational tours visit us to see how we run our program and they buy souvenirs or take-home gifts,” he said.
Family’s needs
Sab-a said they add another P20 to P50 on top of the labor cost to recover the cost of materials used like the glue and acrylic emulsion.
Sab-a said they source most of their magazines and used brochures from commercial establishments in their barangay while they get their backing tape (the remains of a tape after you take out the stickers) from International Pharmaceuticals Inc. (IPI).
“They do not charge us. They just require us to haul the trash and bring these to the barangay hall,” she said.
Dabo, a mother of eight, said the barangay’s “Kwarta sa Basura” program took care of her family’s needs after her husband, a carpenter, lost his overseas employment in 2012.
“I’m now teaching my adult children who still live with me and husband so they can earn for themselves,” she said.