Members of the city’s Circular Economy Action Team gather for a workshop to jumpstart the crafting of an action plan to crystallize programs on circular economy, a concept where sustainable use of natural resources is normalized with the end in view of addressing problems on pollution, climate change and biodiversity loss.
The initial workshop led to outputs on draft portfolios or programs relating to five of the ten circular economy principles. The output will be refined in succeeding sessions with the involvement of the stakeholders until the programs are completed and refined leading to the finalization of the action plan.
The City Circular Economy Action Team is headed by Mayor Benjamin Magalong and co-chaired by city council committee on health and sanitation, ecological and environmental protection Councilor Betty Lourdes Tabanda with City Planning Development and Sustainability Coordinator Arch Donna Tabangin and General Services Officer Eugene Buyucan as action officers.
It was created to spearhead the planning, designing, implementation, monitoring and reporting of plans and multi-stakeholder initiatives that contribute to the 10R principles (refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle and recover) of circular economy.
Mayor Magalong earlier expressed the city’s readiness to transform into a green economy where waste management and energy efficiency are enhanced through circular economy and renewable energy development. He said this is one way to arrest urban decay, mitigate climate crisis and achieve the city’s vision of becoming a livable, inclusive and creative city, according to the mayor.
This aspiration was boosted when the city was chosen as one of the pioneer local government unit grantees of the Green LGUs Project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Dept. of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to demonstrate the advantages of circular economy which according to the UNDP “aims to minimize waste and promote sustainable use of natural resources through smarter product design, longer use, recycling and more.
The Green LGUs project is one of the objectives of the Green Economy Programme in the Philippines (GEPP), an initiative of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the European Union (EU) which aims “to enhance waste management, support the transition to a circular economy, and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy technologies” by providing avenues for “policy dialogue, circular economy development and renewable energy promotion” to local government unit (LGU) grantees.
The city was able to initially identify initiatives and programs where circular economy concepts and principles can be applied during an initial engagement with the UNDP Green LGUs project implementers serving as a take-off point for some programs. ** Aileen P. Refuerzo