More and more people today have been moving towards sustainable living as seen from the example of the many Laguna residents who took their time to bring in their trash for recycling and proper disposal to NUVALI’s 2nd Recyclables Fair held last July 26.

The Fair is a quarterly Saturday activity from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm at NUVALI, an Ayala property located at the Sta Rosa-Tagaytay Road, and is part of the township’s waste management program supporting waste segregation at source to promote reduction, reuse, recycling and proper disposal of trash.

“We initially conceptualized this event to help promote the law – RA 9003 on Waste Minimization, Recycling, and Reduction. Our aim here is for people to be aware and participate in our recycling efforts and so far, we’ve gotten a lot of support from different sectors,” said Adel Licos, Social Initiatives Manager, Ayala Foundation Inc.

With the active participation of the residents and industrial parks in the area, visitors came in as early as 8:00 am, bringing in their segregated items ready for weighing. Since its initial run last April, the collection had a 226% increase (in volume), a good indication of more responsible and conscientious living.

The Recyclables Fair was made possible through the assistance of Ayala Foundation, Inc. (AFI) and I-Serve, a non-government organization involved in the social development programs of NUVALI. Representatives from the local government offices of Sta. Rosa and Calamba also showed their support by encouraging the community to participate in the event.

“As luck would have it, Laguna’s Green Program has provided us with a lot of assistance. Here in Sta. Rosa for example, Josephina Arcillas, mother of Sta. Rosa Mayor Nazareno, is in-charge of the Green Council of Sta. Rosa and is actually one of our very first customers,” said NUVALI Operations Manager, Stephen Comia.

With a rapidly growing population and lack of adequate disposal sites, solid waste has become a major problem in the country. This often results in open dumping sites and illegal open burning of wastes. Both pose threats to the community and the environment. Through proper waste segregation, recycling and disposal, the amount of actual waste thrown into landfills can be reduced.

“In our experience, people really appreciated learning how to segregate their waste and recycle because they saw how it can contribute to the cleanliness of their surroundings and to the well-being of their families, which is very important to them.” explained Jeannette Dumo, Executive Director of I-Serve.

Start segregating and bundling your old newspapers, plastic bottles and used CDs and drop them off at NUVALI on October 25. Imagine how much you could give back to your community.

Accepted items are grouped into 6 general categories: 1) paper and carton products, which include used bond/pad paper, notepads, newspaper, books, magazines, directories, boxes or milk cartons; 2) e-Waste such as CDs, DVDs, old / non-working home or office electronic and electrical appliances, video tapes, obsolete CPUs, monitors and mobile phones; 3) plastic items which include plastic bottles, pipes, containers, sando bags, and plastic furniture; 4) steel/Metal products like aluminum and tin cans, scrap, household appliances, steel beams, and food packaging and other containers; 5) batteries like genset, UPS, motor batteries; and 6) cartridges such as ink and toner cartridges.

For more on NUVALI’s sustainability programs, you may visit NUVALI’s Visitors’ Center located at the Sta. Rosa-Tagaytay Road entrance, open from Monday to Sunday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm or reach us at 0917.5.ASK.NUV (0917.5.275.688) or e-mail ask.nuv@ayalaland.com.ph