Turning trash into treasure:

Transcription

1 A resident looks out from a window at what remains of Smokey Mountain. For over 20 years, it was home to a large community of informal settlers, who scavenged on the refuse that was sent here daily. Turning trash into treasure: A multi-purpose cooperative is thriving in Manila s impoverished Smokey Mountain through recycling and other profitable enterprises Smokey Mountain began in the 1950s as an unplanned dumpsite at Barrio Mandaragat, a fishing community on the shore of Manila Bay just north of the Philippine capital. As the trash mounted and the slums of Manila s Tondo district enveloped the area, it became a magnet for poor migrants. A stream of new arrivals eager to trade poverty in the provinces for opportunity in the capital squatted on and around the mound of trash to eke out their living as scavengers. In the 1980s, the population climbed to 30,000, and Smokey Mountain became a showcase for urban squalor and misery perhaps the worst manifestation of Manila s growing garbage problem. Without an effective system for managing waste, the Philippines capital was overwhelmed with a tidal wave of refuse. At the time, an estimated 6,700 tons was generated per day. Of that amount, approximately 720 tons was recycled or composted. The balance some 6,000 tons daily was either hauled to city dump sites like Smokey Mountain; dumped illegally on private land, in rivers, creeks, and Manila Bay; or openly burned, adding to the heavily polluted air. This garbage problem posed a serious health risk.

2 In 1990, the government resolved to close the Smokey Mountain dump, which nevertheless continued to receive truckloads of trash for another 5 years. In 2001, the government finished moving the informal settlers into temporary housing in open warehouses nearby. Three-quarters of the 20-hectare mountain was bulldozed and carted off to create a level area on which to build 5-story walkups. Since 2004, some 15,000 people have moved into these tenements. However, with the smoldering dump gone, most residents also lost their main source of income scavenging and selling the waste. market because there were fruits. We picked them up and half of them would still be edible, so my mother would cut them up and feed them to my other siblings. By the time she was 24, she had been widowed twice and had already buried two out of her then four children, but she never gave up. She completed high school at 29 and went on to take vocational courses in bookkeeping. Her studies earned her an internship with the Sambayanan ng Muling Pagkabuhay ni Kristo Multi-purpose Cooperative. The coop s name means Association of the Risen Christ, reflecting its genesis under the parish church. To provide livelihood opportunities for some of these residents and also improve environmental conditions around the tenements, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), through its Poverty and Environment Fund (PEF), supported a multi-purpose cooperative that would help transform the former waste heap into a place of hope and opportunity for its members. This cooperative demonstrates how residents working together can generate the income they need to pursue their hopes and dreams for themselves and their children. Today, the Coop board chair is Danny Mendoza. Danny himself was a veteran scavenger on Smokey Mountain when he helped to found the enterprise in A landless peasant farmer in Bulacan, the province abutting Metro Manila on the northeast, he had joined his brother at Smokey Mountain in 1977 as an ambitious 27-year-old. Leticia Reyes moved to Smokey Mountain from another poor part of Manila when she was 14 years old. Letty recalls her first days at the dump. When I got to Smokey Mountain there were a lot of worms and once you entered it was all muddy up to your knees. There was so much trash and so many flies. And even though we were poor, we had not grown up in that kind of environment. Instead of going to school, Letty spent her days scouring the landfill for food. We would always wait for the trash coming from the Board Chairman Danny Mendoza, another former scavenger, managed to put himself through university under the coop s scholarship program. I dreamed of going to Manila because they said that money could be found here, Danny

3 recalls when interviewed in the coop office. I scavenged trash and was able to save enough to continue my studies. Danny finally stopped scavenging a decade and a half after he began, with the advent of the coop. However, the coop failed to produce sustainable benefits. The parish priest saw the coop as a charity, as did many of its original 500 members who joined mainly to receive microloans funded by government grants. Many of these loans were never recovered. With assistance from the PEF project, the cooperative built a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF). In the first-ever such deal with the National Housing Authority, the coop obtained a lease on public land adjacent to permanent housing on which to build its MRF. Constructed using recycled materials, the building was designed to draw air up and out for natural air conditioning. It also uses rainwater collected from the roof to provide much of the water supply needed to clean recovered materials. Wastewater flows through a seven-step filtration system of gravel and sand which cleans it before it exits the compound. The turnaround started in 2003, when Father Ben Beltran, the parish priest, asked the non-governmental organization (NGO) Sustainable Project Management (SPM) to help improve livelihood opportunities around Smokey Mountain and to also address the environmental and health risks associated with exposure to the mountain of waste. To meet these objectives, SPM developed a proposal for the newly established PEF, which at the time was identifying and funding promising pilot interventions. SPM was subsequently awarded a grant to implement the Smokey Mountain Remediation and Development Program from 2005 to The PEF project tried a different approach by encouraging the cooperative to focus more on profits and enterprise. It used a combined approach of public-private partnerships and community empowerment, including training in management and financial skills. The project also piloted a safer and more lucrative alternative to the junk shops which are still prevalent around the port area. Recycling was an obvious choice for the cooperative, as it was the business that residents knew best. Toto Rivas, who worked on Smokey Mountain s dumpsite in his teenage years, heads the waste separation team. Several residents were employed to build the MRF. Through the PEF project, they received on-the-job training and certification that subsequently allowed them to land construction jobs outside of Smokey Mountain. Today, the MRF has a staff of 20. Trash separators who must be coop members work as a team and are paid by the kilogram, dividing the take equally. Each earns $150 $225 per month. The coop has agreements with several firms to buy and transport their semi-segregated to

4 the MRF using a truck it bought in 2012 with MRF profits. The trash is further separated, cleaned and processed, which raises the value of trash considerably. Replication is already happening, as the twenty one barangays around Smokey Mountain are sharing lessons learned and better coordinating their waste streams based on the waste management practices of the coop. In their 2013 strategic planning session, the coop underlined their wish to offer a country-wide model for a green MRF, and they are already exploring ways to move up the value chain and buy and sell trash that has already been separated. The coop recognized water as an opportunity for two enterprises. It established a commercial water-supply business that purifies water onsite using filtration and ultraviolet rays before selling the potable output to community households in large reusable containers. The water center employs 10 workers full-time and an equal number part-time. More recently, the coop launched its Smokey Mountain Eco- Laundromat Service Center, which uses wastewater from the adjacent water center. Two satellite laundries operate in tenement buildings using harvested rainwater. Together, the laundries employ 6 women full-time and 10 part-time. By working to professionalize the cooperative and instill basic management and financial skills, SPM subsequently helped the cooperative expand into many different microenterprises, including masonry services and handicrafts. These enterprises continue to deliver economic benefits to members, while also contributing to social equity and environmental improvement. Besides micro-enterprise, the cooperative values ownership, volunteering, and capacitybuilding. It also places a strong emphasis on ethical values, such as honesty, integrity and transparency. In return for annual dues of 2,000 pesos, members receive health benefits and social security, as well as a return on investment. Members are also able to access micro-loans, which are granted at 2% interest rate for 3 months and are typically used for emergency situations and education. The cooperative also provides job opportunities, with priority given to its members. Customers await their turn at the coop s water station, which boasts in-house filtration equipment. The adjacent eco-laundromat service center uses the wastewater to feed its washing machines. The coop currently has 150 full members and another 50 associate members who have made the initial investment of $5. In 2013, 50 new recruits were oriented on coop principles and procedures and are expected to begin investing soon. An equal number are expected to undergo orientation in Revenues of $23,020 in 2008 grew to $58,860 by % of the profit is used as a mandatory reserve fund, while 40% goes to full coop members as dividends.

5 The revitalized organization, which still receives modest in-kind technical support and fundraising assistance from SPM, offers a model to other communities for how to sustainably manage a pro-poor urban cooperative through a multi-level strategy, including livelihood training, community mobilization, and service enterprises. Letty Reyes now serves as the coop accountant, earning $150 per monthly to support her five children, four of her seven younger siblings, and her third husband, who has retired from his job as a security guard. They used his retirement benefit to buy a house in Bulacan, where they sometimes visit on the weekends, but Letty prefers to stay at Smokey Mountain along with many others in her community. I am proud of what I have achieved. Here at Smokey Mountain there are many opportunities. Many groups offer free education and also free training, she says. For me, I don t really want for us to just leave this place. This is where my family grew up. All I want is for them to have a decent livelihood. I am proud that I live here in Smokey Mountain. Leticia Reyes works full-time at the cooperative as its accountant. Now remarried, she and her husband are slowly paying their way to the ownership of their Paradise Heights apartment.