Rizal Park cleaners work double time to clear New Year trash

Workers at the Rizal Park in Manila worked double time to clear the area of tons of garbage left behind by Filipinos who spent New Year there.

 

As of 8 a.m. Wednesday, the National Parks Development Committee workers still faced a heavy task of collecting the litter, radio dzBB's Carlo Mateo reported.

 

The trash left behind by Filipinos who spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Rizal Park extended all the way to the Padre Burgos area, the report said.

 

Many Filipino families spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Rizal Park.

 

'Cut back on waste'

 

Meanwhile, the ecological group EcoWaste Coalition appealed to Filipinos to start practicing waste prevention and reduction in 2013.

 

“As we usher in the New Year, we appeal to everyone to cut back on our waste by consuming responsibly and consciously reducing, reusing, recycling and composting our discards,” said the group's steering committee member Romy Hidalgo, the NGO representative to the National Solid Waste Management Commission.

 

“It is our civic and environmental duty to segregate our discards and divert whatever we could away from dumps, landfills, cement kilns, incinerators and other disposal sites," Hidalgo added.

 

The group issued the appeal after noting "unsightly garbage" discarded in many streets.

 

It added firecracker remains, cardboard and cellophane remnants, food packaging materials, plastic bags, cigarette butts and food leftovers were among the garbage left by New Year revelers.

 

Also, the group said that Plaza Miranda in Quiapo, Manila was littered with white polystyrene fruit containers and other garbage left by vendors and revelers.

 

In Rizal Park in Manila, food containers and scraps were left behind by people who spent the New Year there.

 

Citing government figures, the group said Metro Manila generates up to 8,600 tons of garbage daily, or 25 percent of the country's daily waste  generation of some 35,000 tons.—KG, GMA News