After the 22-hour-long Traslacion with over 110,000 participants, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has gathered 15 truckloads of trash when it started collecting garbage Tuesday until early Wednesday. This is 50 trucks less than last year’s, which is an improvement but still unacceptable.

For the cleaning operation, the MMDA deployed around 100 street sweepers. Most of the collected trash at the Quirino Grandstand and along the route of the procession were plastic bottles, styrofoam, food leftovers, plastic bags, and cardboard cartons. Note that the City of Manila bans plastic under the Ordinance No. 8282.

This was despite the annual call for trash-less Traslacion. Running priest Fr. Robert Reyes even held “Basu-Run,” a campaign this year with the same cause.

EcoWaste Coalition is an environmental group that appealed the matter to the Black Nazarene devotees the past few days. According to their press release published on Facebook today, some devotees still chose to urinate in the open or in pet bottles even though public toilets were available.

“Our plea for a trash-less Traslacion remains an elusive dream,” Zero Waste Campaigner Daniel Alejandre lamented. “We hope devotees will heed our appeal for waste prevention and reduction next year. Magpasalamat, hindi magkalat.”

The heaping truckloads of garbage aren’t only harmful to the environment but also torturous to the government workers and volunteers. When will we learn to be considerate and responsible? It’s not like throwing litter properly is too big a task.

Header image courtesy of EcoWaste Coalition