Residents of San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte have shown overwhelming support for the local government’s waste management efforts by participating in the “Palit-Basura” (trash exchange) program that allows them to swap discards for school and household essentials.

Orlando Pascua, principal of the Pasion-Barangay Memorial Elementary School, said in an interview Friday that the program encourages responsible waste management.

Teachers, students and parents gather discarded materials such as plastic wrappers, shampoo sachets and other packaging materials and trade them at the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) for corresponding points every Tuesday and Thursday.

Through the program, Pascua said education stakeholders are inspired to maintain zero-waste communities.

“Recently, we have collected a total of 191 kilos of mixed paper, including colored and white papers, cardboard, cartons, old magazines, notebooks and even termite-infested reading materials and exchanged it for school and office supplies, as well as toiletries,” he said.

Councilor Nestor Ribao of San Pablo village said people do not just throw litter away because they might be useful for the program.

“Our accumulated trash and waste have been bartered for two reams of bond paper, two broomsticks, two hand soaps, isopropyl alcohol, two dust pans and a water dipper,” he said.

MENRO also accepts worn-out or busted mobile phones, clean and sanitized clear glass bottles and tin cans in exchange for memory flash drives, correction tapes, staplers, permanent markers, scissors, plastic basins and garden tools.

San Nicolas is famous for its pottery industry. (PNA)