Waste Pickers Help Fight Climate Change

Waste Pickers Help Fight Climate Change

Along the streets of Malabon in the Philippines, Marilene Capentes pushes a cart every morning except Sundays. The city of Malabon is just north of the capital, Manila.

Capentes is a waste picker. She collects bags of separated garbage, placing food waste in one container. This material will be turned into compost at the local recycling facility. The rest of the waste goes into separate containers. The recyclable materials are later sold.

Capentes said the heavy garbage used to be all mixed together. Then a few years ago, a local environmental nonprofit started asking people to separate their garbage.

The Mother Earth Foundation in the Philippines is a member of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, called GAIA. The organization wants to prevent food waste from going to landfills. Food waste gives off methane¹ gas as it breaks down. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas.

Methane traps more heat than carbon dioxide. But it does not stay in the atmosphere nearly as long -- around 12 years compared with hundreds of years.

GAIA says preventing organic waste from going to landfills or being burned is a proven and cost-effective climate solution. The environmental organization supports its members, including waste pickers, around the world. GAIA is working with governments to set up systems to separate and collect organic waste and establish facilities to compost it.

At a materials recycling facility in Malabon, organic waste collected from households is turned into compost. This material then goes into a community garden to grow vegetables. Some of the food waste is broken down into biogas. This biogas is then used to cook vegetables for waste workers to eat.

It is a complete cycle, said Froilan Grate, chief of GAIA Asia Pacific, based in Manila.

Grate said there are challenges in establishing these systems in new places. It costs money to set up a facility for composting. People, including local officials, have to be educated on the importance of separating waste. Containers have to be provided to households that cannot buy more than one.

And sometimes separating organic waste is not thought to be important. Also, unlike recyclables and metals, there is not a large market for organic materials. Therefore, waste workers must be paid for the system to work.

But Grate believes these problems can be solved. More people are making the connection between reducing methane and fighting climate change.

The world needs better systems for dealing² with waste because the current methods are adding to warming, said Kait Siegel. She leads the methane pollution prevention team at the environmental nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. She said the treatment of organic matter is an important way to reduce methane gas.

"We've seen these solutions make a difference in countries around the world," she said. "We're all creating organic waste in our day-to-day lives...."

The Global Methane Pledge, launched in November 2021, has pushed countries to examine their sources of methane. More than 100 countries, including the United States, have agreed to reduce methane emissions⁴ by 30 percent by 2030. However, other countries that produce large amounts of methane refused.

Brazil is one of the world's five largest methane creators. Since President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva took office in January, there has been growing support for waste pickers, waste recycling, and fighting climate change, said Victor Hugo Argentino de Morais Vieira. He is a waste adviser⁵ and researcher at Instituto Pólis, a non-governmental, non-profit organization in Brazil.

In Bahia, a popular tourist area, a large composting site has been operating for years. Waste pickers there developed a system for their work collecting organic garbage from hotels and restaurants. But few other waste pickers collect food waste.

In South Africa, it is also not common to separate organic waste. But for the past two years the idea has been tested at a large market in the port city of Durban.

"It can be a game changer for the continent," said Niven Reddy, the African regional coordinator⁶ for GAIA. "It can be tested and tried. If it works in Africa in one place, it's likely to work someplace else — 400,000 people go through that market a day."

GAIA leaders like Reddy are looking to the systems established in the Philippines as a model.

Words in This Story

garbage – n. food waste : discarded or useless material

compost – n. a mixture that consists largely of decayed organic matter and is used for fertilizing⁷ and conditioning land

recycling – v. to process (as liquid body waste, glass, or cans) in order to regain⁸ materials for human use

incinerator – n. a furnace or a container for burning waste materials

alternative – adj. being one of the things between which a choice is to be made

landfill – n. a system of trash and garbage disposal in which the waste is buried between layers of earth to build up low-lying land

greenhouse gas – n. any of various gaseous⁹ compounds (such as carbon dioxide or methane) that absorb infrared¹⁰ radiation, trap heat in the atmosphere, and contribute to the greenhouse effect

emission³ – n. something emitted or discharged

tourist – n. one that makes a tour for pleasure or culture

1 methane   

n.甲烷，沼气

参考例句：

• The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
• Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。

2 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

3 emission   

n.发出物，散发物；发出，散发

参考例句：

• Rigorous measures will be taken to reduce the total pollutant emission.采取严格有力措施，降低污染物排放总量。
• Finally,the way to effectively control particulate emission is pointed out.最后，指出有效降低颗粒排放的方向。

4 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

5 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

6 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

7 fertilizing   

v.施肥( fertilize的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Sometimes the preliminary step must be taken of reducing weed population before fertilizing. 有时候，在施肥之前，必须采取减少杂草密度的预备性步骤。 来自辞典例句
• The self fertilizing garden can also be planted in raised beds. 自我施肥的菜园也可以在苗圃床中种植。 来自互联网

8 regain   

vt.重新获得，收复，恢复

参考例句：

• He is making a bid to regain his World No.1 ranking.他正为重登世界排名第一位而努力。
• The government is desperate to regain credibility with the public.政府急于重新获取公众的信任。

9 gaseous   

adj.气体的，气态的

参考例句：

• Air whether in the gaseous or liquid state is a fluid.空气，无论是气态的或是液态的，都是一种流体。
• Freon exists both in liquid and gaseous states.氟利昂有液态和气态两种形态。

10 infrared   

adj./n.红外线(的)

参考例句：

• Infrared is widely used in industry and medical science.红外线广泛应用于工业和医学科学。
• Infrared radiation has wavelengths longer than those of visible light.红外辐射的波长比可见光的波长长。