• CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
A resolution supporting and endorsing the joint and enhanced DepEd-BCC-Best (Basic Environmental System and Technologies) Project RISE, or Revitalizing Institutional Sustainability and Empowerment Trash to Cashback Program 2.0, was approved by the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod Wednesday.
Authored by Councilor Homer Bais, the resolution said that under R.A. 9003, or the “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000,” it is a declared policy to adopt a systematic, comprehensive, and ecological waste management program which will, among others, ensure protection of public health and environment; utilize environmentally-sound methods that will maximize the utilization of valuable resources; and encourage resources conservation and recovery; institutionalize public participation in the development and implementation of national and local integrated, comprehensive and ecological waste management programs.
Project RISE is an institutionalized circular economy, and economic and environmental system designed to reduce waste and continuously reuse resources, instead of the traditional ‘Take-Make-Dispose’ model to keep products, materials, and resources in use for as long as possible through; reducing resource consumption, reusing products and materials, repairing damaged items, recycling waste into new products, and recovering resources or energy from waste, it said.
Under the enhanced program of RISE, recyclables gathered from household, establishments, and surroundings are cleaned, dried, and segregated under the Clean-Dry-Store rule before it is brought to an institution for Cashback redemption program or environmental points, that can be exchanged for essential school assets such as maintenance equipment, instructional tools, or communication units at no cost to the school’s general fund or city’s budget, as well as academic incentives where learners can earn extra credit or points in relevant subjects such as values education (GMRC), Science, and Health, the resolution said.
Project RISE, a joint novel initiative of DepEd represented by Dennis Develos, assistant Schools Division Superintendent, Bacolod City College (BCC) school administrator Johanna Bayonetta, BCC-Bakuran adviser and instructor Junalyn Libiran, and partners BEST Inc., is a cause worthy of emulation befitting the city’s support and admiration, it added.*
