Going Green (Antz): Where can our plastics go?
Iris Palma in Ang Pinoy Stories
Oct 20, 2019 • 2 min Read
Houston…este, Juan, we have a problem with unrecyclable sachet laminates.
Our tingi mentality dictates that we can save if we buy shampoo by the tingi or per sachet and not by the bottle. This leaves us with bloated trashes that will be on this earth long after we had gone to meet our creator.
Our country will need new landfills by 2020. With waste becoming an issue, we need more landfills but communities do not want to host them. If we can’t avoid buying sachets and other kinds of plastics, then at least we have to know how to dispose these well or at least reuse or convert them.
Enter Green Antz Builders, Inc., a social enterprise headed by Rommel Benig (president and chief executive officer) and Mark Yulores (executive vice president and chief innovative officer).
Green Antz creates eco-bricks from plastics and laminates. It is proud to integrate “eco-friendly practices and green technologies in its products and services.” They basically provide “from your waste, we create” solutions.
In partnership with organizations and local government units, Green Antz finds ways to re-tune polluters (most Filipinos!) to be part of an effective solution to the plastic waste problem in the Philippines and redirecting the community’s awareness toward the use of eco-bricks. Here are a few partnerships:
- Plaridel, Bulacan requires constituents to swap discarded plastic bottles and laminates as payment for rendered government services. It has constructed day care centers, classrooms, and walkways from eco-bricks.
- The National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ Pasig River project actively collects clean plastics from the community and drops the loot at the Arca South Eco Hub (an Ayala for processing into construction materials.
- A Bulacan-based youth group aims to construct a soup kitchen or food hub using eco-bricks.
- Clark Development Corporation will construct a research and development facility that not only uses eco-bricks, but will promote green initiatives as well.
Green Antz is one of the many social enterprises promoting green advocacy, it is not alone. They hope to build 10 ecohubs by 2020 as it partners with more private construction companies. And 90 more ecohubs in the future!
With a vision to help the country one community at a time, Green Antz is now partnering with more companies to identify more beneficiaries that can manage the operation of hubs with Green Antz overseeing them.
And that, dear Juan, is how things are done the Green Antz way.
Photo Source: FB Page of Green Antz Builders Inc.
