Along the streets of Malabon in the Philippines, Marilene Capentes pushes a cart every morning except Sundays. The city of Malabon is just north of the capital, Manila.
Capentes is a waste picker. She collects bags of separated garbage, placing food waste in one container. This material will be turned into compost (堆肥) at the local recycling center. The rest of the waste goes into separate containers. The recyclable materials are later sold.
Capentes said the heavy rubbish used to be all mixed together. Then a few years ago, a local environmental nonprofit (非盈利机构) started asking people to separate their rubbish.
The Mother Earth Foundation in the Philippines is a member of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, called GAIA. The organization wants to avert food waste from going to landfills. Food waste gives off biogas (沼气) as it breaks down. Biogas is a powerful greenhouse gas.
At a material recycling center in Malabon, organic (有机的) waste collected from households is turned into compost. This material then goes into a community garden to grow vegetables. Some of the food waste is broken down into biogas. This biogas is then used to cook vegetables for waste workers to eat.
There are challenges in establishing these systems in new places. It costs money to set up a facility for composting. People, including local officials, have to be educated on the importance of separating waste. Containers have to be provided to families that cannot buy more than one.
And sometimes separating organic waste is not thought to be important. Also, unlike recyclables and metals, there is not a large market for organic materials. Therefore, waste workers must be paid for the system to work. But these problems can be solved. More people are making the connection between reducing biogas and fighting climate change.
