Waste not, want not

Can you imagine how much waste every person throws away and which becomes the problem of waste disposal companies?

- CHIT U. JUAN

I recently discussed the country's big waste problem with "Ms. Garbage" herself, Olive Puentespina of Davao Thermo Biotech Corporation (DTBC) - the company that helps pick up food waste from fast food companies as well as manufacturers of various food items and even poultries - yes, because chickens shed feathers and that is protein waste, too.Every food production involves waste because we cannot use 100 percent of a product. Commissaries throw food waste, dressing plants throw chicken feathers and manufacturers throw expired goods. Can you imagine who has to deal with all those unavoidable excesses? We learned so much about this other side of manufacturing when we talked to Olive, who graphically explained what can be done to various types of wastes.

When food is past its expiry date, who deals with it? We simply throw it away, but someone has to either put it in a landfill or convert it to usable products. But landfills are finite. It costs millions to open landfills only for them to be filled with otherwise reusable or convertible waste. Olive tells us only diapers and sanitary pads should go to landfills. Other food wastes must degrade organically, if segregated and disposed of in compost heaps. Otherwise, they take up space in landfills meant for the "unrecyclable."