I have recently been to Hong Kong and what awesomed me more is surprisingly neither the night market nor Disneyland. Do you know that almost all their local companies and establishments strictly encourage and implement the recycling of PET (or Polyethylene Terephthalate) bottles? In our Hong Kong office, they have a separate bin for empty PET bottles. In Disneyland, all trash bins come in pairs where one is dedicated solely for PET bottle disposal as in the picture accompanying this article.

This consciousness for preserving the environment must come from each and everyone of us. True. But the initiative must really come from the government. I’m sorry for this hard sell, but Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department deserves high praises for making its citizens and visitors realize the value of recycling if only for the PET bottle recycling movement they had successfully implemented. Adults do it and so children follow suit and live the habit from example.

I’m up for recycling (shut up) and I’d do it in a heartbeat so long as I know there’s a local wide-scale system in place fueling its efficiency. What I mean is for now I haven’t even heard of a local government agency that’s on to recycling like game is to a hunter. I segregate and I throw the segregated bottles in a separate bag from my other trash consisting of scratched porn DVDs and used condoms but then what? Do my bottles end up getting recycled or do they sit together with other non-biodegradable trash in the dumps?

Last night, I checked the label off a 1.5 Litre Coke bottle and, although it has the recycle symbol on it, it doesn’t even contain a suggestion for its disposal. What? Seriously? Yea, srsly.

The good thing about a recycling movement working for other countries is we can look up to their ideals and processes and adapt them locally, too. What’s in it for the government then for recycling? Revenues, of course. Recycling companies make money from processed recycled waste by either selling them to local companies who can use them in manufacturing new bottles or by importing said products. With the throes of companies employing millions of Filipinos locally, each of whom have at least drank or will drink PET bottled beverages, it is surprising that nobody has taken a bite off setting up a recycling company yet! I are entrepreneuralz00rz!

So yeah, for now, as I still optimistically hope for a good recycling program to make waves, just like what Gawad Kaliga did with companies to encourage them to help our under-privileged brethren, I shall practice these simple habits for as long as I can as sort of a creed:

• Bring and use my own utensils when dining in the office;
• Tell the restaurant food delivery people to not include utensils in my to-go package;
• Use my own mug when ordering coffee outside or when drinking from the office water dispenser;
• Buy glass-bottled soda whenever convenient; and
• Encourage as many people to do the same.

This way, I shall have abstained from using several plastic cups, spoons, forks, knives, and PET bottles in a month.

For related reading, click here for a written paper study made by Blessie A. Basilia and Leonides C. Valencia entitled “Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) Plastics: Waste Recovery And Recycling In The Philippines.”

(Blog Post written for Blog Action Day)