The Waste Collection Trikes – or what is popularly known as "padyak" here in Metro Manila – that DENR National Capital Region has given to barangays along priority waterways, are now in heavy use to collect and transport waste from communities nearby esteros.
The regional office, through its Manila Bay Site Coordinating and Management Office (MBSCMO), had been distributing waste collection trikes to selected barangays for the last two years to help them in the operation of their respective Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) and strengthen their compliance with Republic Act No. 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000).
The distribution of waste collection trikes is one of the innovative solutions that DENR came up with in resolving the issue of trash collection in communities along rivers and esteros of Metro Manila. Citing a study, DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu said that garbage generated by estero communities with narrow streets or alleys are not regularly collected as these areas are not accessible to dump trucks. The uncollected trash, he added, eventually ended up in Manila Bay.
To address this issue, DENR National Capital Region redesigned and customized the "padyak" into waste collection trikes.
As of August 2021, the regional office was able to provide 39 barangays with waste collection trikes. Barangay 190 in Pasay City – featured in the present post – is one of the recipient barangays. It straddles along Estero Tripa de Gallina, a tributary of Parañaque River, and has generally small roads, making it difficult for dump trucks employed by the city government to effectively collect trash from communities far from the main road.
Barangays, with the help of Estero Rangers, also use pedal-powered trikes to collect and bring recyclable and reusable items to their MRFs.
MRFs, according to DENR-NCR Regional Executive Director Jacqueline A. Caancan, are crucial to the effective management of municipal waste. "The function of an MRF is to recover recyclable materials from the waste that we generate, thereby reducing the amount of waste brought to the landfill", she explained.
DENR National Capital Region is leading efforts in Metro Manila to clean and rehabilitate Manila Bay and the rivers and esteros that drain into the historic bay.
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