The recycling center of the Passi City Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is a 150 sq. meter structure where at one corner, sacks filled with bottles, cans, metals, and plastic recyclables are stacked one on top of the other. Beside the pile, like a sentry, stands a weighing scale, for residents of Poblacion frequently walk in to sell their “household junk items”: milk cans, broken plastic chairs, cosmetic containers, empty bottles of liquor and vinegar, even old newspapers.

In the middle of the facility structure is a table where a group of around 6 men and women are busy with their hands fashioning things of new use to daily life from the old materials. Now they are rolling newspapers with wire and make of them patterns for placemats, bags, notebook covers, and hats. They talk, whistle, or sing each to each. Their fingers hands, and arms flicker and are orchestrated in the motion of breathing new life to wastes.

It is not only old newspapers that can be transformed into useful products. At the head of a table, Elsa Rodriguez sits before a sewing machine, patching together tetra packs. On a fair day, Elsa produces 4 medium-sized tetra pack bags. Each bag costs P120.00 to produce and can be sold for P150.00 to P200.00. The sewing machines are supplied by the Local Government Unit of Passi City. The tetra packs are bought at 25 centavos a piece from walk in residents, school pupils, and itinerant junk buyers. The garbage collectors from the Linis Bayan Office also regularly bring in recyclable wastes from the piles of mixed wastes collected from the market.

The City MRF employs 8 workers; 2 are regular, while the other 6 are casual workers. They learned the production of recycled goods at a training provided by the GTZ-AHT Solid Waste Management Program for LGUs in Iloilo. The trained LGU personnel are now beginning to teach other residents, teachers, barangay workers, and students how to create new products from wastes. In Nov. 2006 a trainers’ training have been conducted for participants from barangays Man-it, Agdayao, Mawod, Ilaya, Dalicano, Quinaringan, and Sablogon. The MRF workers speak of product development and acquiring new tools and equipment. One sewing machine is not enough. The quality of the commodities has to be improved. Trials for new materials from wastes have to be conducted. …Considering that 18% of the total wastes in Passi City or 1 ton a day comprise recyclable wastes, (from the Waste Characterization of 2005), what Silvestre Cabillos, MRF trainer, says about “teaching young people practical skills that will redound to the benefit of the environment” makes a lot of sense. The people of Passi City always have time for innovative ideas.