Ecowaste calls for New Year revelry sans ‘crackers, fireworks
MANILA—Three weeks before the New Year, the environmentalist group EcoWaste Coalition launched its yearly campaign against unsafe firecrackers on Friday in an effort to convince the public to avoid the kind of revelry that could cause death and injury or pollute the air with toxic fumes.
The group kick-started its drive at the Commonwealth Elementary School in Quezon City, where some 1,000 pupils, led by principal Rodolfo Modelo, demonstrated how to celebrate the New Year just as festively without health-damaging and environment-polluting firecrackers.
They made noise using “alternative eco-friendly and home-made” noisemakers such as cymbals and trumpets made of recycled materials and simulated a countdown to the New Year.
“These safety-conscious kids have shown that we can ring in the New Year with sounds from ingeniously recycled noisemakers instead of firecrackers and fireworks,” said Aileen Lucero, national coordinator of EcoWaste.
“The use of firecrackers and pyrotechnics to usher the New Year has long been identified as a major source of accidental injuries and deaths, as well as toxic chemical pollution,” she added.
The campaign, called “Iwas PapuToxic” and now in its eight year, seeks to complement the Department of Health’s own firecracker safety drive by promoting safe and ecologically sensitive substitutes to deadly and costly firecrackers.
EcoWaste earlier said it discovered “high amounts” of toxic metals,including antimony, barium and lead, in various fireworks that it purchased last week from street vendors in Divisoria market in Manila.
The group also renewed its appeal to the general public to junk plans to light firecrackers or conduct fireworks displays as a way to show solidarity with victims of Supertyphoon Yolanda, which ravaged Eastern Visayas last month.
“We request our fellow Filipinos preparing for their yearly pyrotechnic shows to cancel your plans and instead donate the money you’ll save to help the typhoon victims,” Lucero said.
“Aside from minimizing toxic chemicals emission and firework-related accidents and injuries, such kind-hearted and considerate acts will certainly benefit grief-stricken families and devastated communities, and enkindle their hopes for a brighter New Year,” she said.
EcoWaste issued the following eco-friendly tips for the New Year merrymaking:
1. Save a finger, blow a torotot (trumpet).
2. Bang cymbals from pot and pan covers.
3. Shake maracas made out of used tin cans.
4. Rattle a tambourine made of flattened bottle crowns.
5. Joggle “piggy banks” or “shakers” from paper box or plastic bottles with seeds, pebbles or coins.
6. Tap drums made of big water bottles, biscuit cans or buckets.
7. Create whistling sound or get a whistle and blow it.
8. Beat the batya or palanggana (washbasin) with a ladle or stick.
9. Knock empty coconut shells.
10. Switch on the radio or play your favorite music or musical instruments.
11. Ring the alarm clocks or play ringtones altogether.
12. Honk bicycle or car horns.
13. Clap your hands and stomp your feet.
14. Laugh your lungs out and bid your worries goodbye.
15. Do the “Roar” like Dr. Eric Tayag, twerk, twist and shout “Happy New Year!”
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