DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 08 August) – Thrown away plastics collected from the coastal areas of this city are being transformed into eco-friendly blocks and bricks by the Bantay Dagat Volunteers Association of Davao City.
Raffy Bermejo, association president, told the Kapehan sa Dabaw on Monday that they have 350 volunteers who collect plastic waste along the shores every Saturday.
Bermejo noted that the association’s role is “to clean up our drainage system, parks and playgrounds, and coastal riverbanks” and ensure single-use plastics are properly collected.
He said the collected plastics are shredded at the material recovery facility in Mcleod, Barangay Daliao in Toril District, which opened last Friday.
He said the shredded plastic wastes are used as additives to sand and cement to produce hollow blocks and bricks.
Bermejo added that the association plans to sell the hollow blocks and bricks commercially, noting that they have the same “compressive strength” as other similar construction materials in the market.
He said hollow blocks cost around P13 per piece
He said eco-friendly materials can be bought at their facility in Daliao.
He said the P5-million social enterprise was funded by the Healthy Oceans and Clean Cities Initiative, a regional project funded by the Japanese government and implemented by the UN Habitat in the Philippines.
He said the facility needs five kilos of shredded plastic waste for every sack of cement, which can produce 90 pieces of four-inch hollow blocks during the initial phase but this capacity can be adjusted to process more wastes and produce more outputs.
He said among the wastes that are being processed are polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles, plastic packaging of junk food, and sachets.
He said Bantay Dagat volunteers collect around 920 kilos of plastic waste every Saturday.
He said the facility could shred 900 kilos to one metric ton of plastic waste in 30 minutes.
Bermejo said the association was created through Executive Order 5 issued by then Mayor Sara Duterte in 2017, in line with the creation of Ancilla Services Unit. “Our function in the city of Davao is actually to effectively and efficiently clean up our drainage system, the coast and riverbanks including sidewalks parks and playgrounds, but there was an opportunity given to us, especially by the UN Habitat through their Healthy Oceans and Clean Cities Initiative,” he said. (Antonio L. Colina / MindaNews)
