Lucila Sandoy’s stomach turned the first time she saw the site they were to try to transform into a materials recovery facility or MRF. 

The place, a narrow strip of land along Pasong Tamo Extension in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, was a mini dumpsite. The putrid smell coming from heaps of trash — a mix of residual, would-have-been recyclables, and rotting organic waste — was unbearable.

“It was really bad, even for me. I was used to working with trash because I previously worked as a waste collector, but the stench was just too much,” Lucila, or Tita Luz to those close to her, exclaimed in Filipino.

The experience Tita Luz was sharing happened in 2011. At the time, Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) where Tita Luz worked, had just started its partnership with Fort Bonifacio, then a newly created barangay, chaired at the time by Lino Cayetano. MEF was providing the barangay technical support in implementing ecological solid waste management. 

The initial steps of the process had been done — 1) baselining which included meetings with the barangay officials to understand their waste management processes and policies, 2) conducting surveys to random houses to learn the households’ perceptions of cleanliness in their barangay, and 3) door-to-door information and education campaigns (IEC) to educate the households about proper waste segregation. 

They were starting the next step: implementation of regular door-to-door segregated waste collection and the new ‘no-segregation, no collection’ policy of the barangay. Thus, it was time to build a materials recovery facility where they were to bring the collected segregated waste: the organic waste for composting, the residual waste for temporary storage until the city collects them, and the recyclables for safekeeping until they have gathered enough volume to sell to the junk shop.

“I doubted that we could do it,” Tita Luz, who now works as Senior Community Organizer at MEF, admitted. “The place was in pretty bad shape. It was too smelly, and there was garbage everywhere. It really looked hopeless.”

But  Froilan Grate, then the young president of MEF, was determined to turn the place around. Froilan was with Tita Luz during that first visit to the old dump site and in every single visit MEF staff made during the program implementation. With them was Raphaelo Villavicencio, who is now a Project Manager at MEF. 

“Seeing Froi’s determination and hands-on approach was a big boost,” Tita Luz said.

So, for the next few weeks, the trio worked on the project. “It was one of the most challenging and definitely the most memorable projects I was involved in. Every day, we worked on the project, notwithstanding the stench smell. It was very difficult, but it also gave us a sense of purpose. It was a big deal that Froi was there working with us, also doing what we were doing. It was inspiring. Everyone involved in the program saw that, too. So, people from the barangay helped as well,” she shared.

After weeks of hard work, they had the garbage removed from the site and transported to the landfill. Then they proceeded to sanitize the area.

“It was a tough job, but as the days went by, it became easier. Then what seemed to be an impossible task slowly looked possible,” she said.

After sanitizing the area, they started the construction of the MRF. They made composting setups where organic waste from the households were to be managed. With the compost they collected, they enriched the soil, until it was good enough to grow plants. They grew a mix of ornamentals and herbs. Not long after, the site looked like an herbal garden — no longer unsightly, its unbearable foul odor gone. Anyone who did not know the backstory of the place would not have guessed it used to be a mini dumpsite. 

Just three years later, in 2014, the barangay was named by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) the cleanest of the 1,700 barangays in the National Capital Region they evaluated. Alongside three other barangays — Barangay Holy Spirit and Barangay Blue Ridge B in Quezon City and Barangay New Zaniga in Mandaluyong City — Barangay Fort Bonifacio was given Php 1 million prize by the MMDA. 

To date, the MRF has hosted numerous study tours organized by local and international organizations — receiving collective ‘ahhs’ when the visitors learn of its transformation story. 

“Today, when we work on new sites, I no longer doubt that we could transform it. As long as there is strong political will from the local leaders, the place can become a Zero Waste model. The story of Fort Bonifacio is proof of that,” said Tita Luz.

The author also wrote another story about the subject, Lucila Sandoy, published in the Back to Earth: Composting for Various Contexts published by GAIA Asia Pacific. This story is an offshoot of the interview conducted with the subject.

Reference

Liamzon, Catherine. 2019. Pioneer of Zero Waste: The Village that Inspired Cities to Go Zero Waste. GAIA Asia Pacific. https://www.no-burn.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Bonifacio.pdf