LET’S APPOINT A GARBAGE CZAR

Depending on who is looking at it, garbage could either be a problem or an opportunity. For sure, it is an opportunity for the poor people who are able to make a living by gathering recyclable and marketable materials from the garbage dump. As a matter of fact, some businessmen have become rich by simply looking at garbage not as garbage, but as recyclables. I do not know if it is still there, but I visited a very successful Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in Los Banos not just once, but twice. That is so because I was very impressed by what they were doing. They were doing everything right, such that only a small percentage of what was supposed to be garbage ended up as non-recyclables. To cut a long story short, the real recyclables such as paper, plastic, glass and metal were sorted out and were sold for their market value, which is probably the reason why they were able to maintain the operating costs of their MRF. The rest of the organic waste was either fed to the earthworms to produce vermicast, or were converted directly to organic fertilizers. Why do we need a garbage czar? The first reason is because the management of garbage cuts across many government agencies and there is really no government agency that is on top of everything. For example, no one is looking at the potential of garbage as a source of renewable energy or of organic fertilizers. The second reason is to implement recycling laws, including the MRFs. IKE SENERES/09088877282/12-28-23