Just when most of us think of dumpsite as filthy piled-garbage mountain, and a place where useless and discarded things should go, the scavengers perceive it as a gold-mine, where they report to each day to eke out a living.
It all starts here…
Not a Scavenger Forever
It all starts here…
Everyday, Naga City generates waste materials, which generally come from these sources: residential, commercial, industrial and institutional. Only very few portion of these are recycled at home, and solid wastes are disposed of and collected via the city’s garbage trucks which traverse ten routes on a daily basis. Collected wastes are then dumped at the Balatas Controlled Dumpsite where they are segregated according to type of wastes biodegradable and non-biodegradable.
The Outskirts of the Dumpsite
As of 2002, 361 families lived in the outskirts of the dumpsite. These families were organized and given urban poor housing so as to save them from getting diseases. However, there are 90 families that are still found clustered beyond the four walls of the dumpsite, and prefer to endure the smell, and the teeming communities of insects/pests which seem like nothing to them. They have even learned and mastered how to breathe through their mouth and become numb of what they step and hold on.
Becoming a Scavenger
A scavenger is a person who collects things discarded by others, or a person who searches through refuse for food or for a living.
Instead of forbidding the residents near the dumpsite to scavenge and do their pangangalakal, the Naga City Government had organized the scavengers into a cooperative to regulate them and totally ban the children from scavenging.
From Trash to Cash
(The Everyday Takings)
Some residents of barangay Balatas (especially those who stay just behind the walls of the dumpsite) are involved in pangangalakal or scavenging. This is the gathering of metals, glass and plastic bottles, paper cartons and other recyclable materials that can be found in other people’s refuse. They then sort these objects and sell to junkshops, wherein they earn from 200-300 pesos a day. This amount could match with the Minimum Daily Wage of an ordinary employee.
According to the president of the Scavengers’ Association, Nanay Ester Norte, each glass bottle, if sold in a junkyard, costs a peso per piece. In the same manner, galvanized iron is sold at 4 pesos per kilo; paper, 3 pesos per kilo; plastic, 5 pesos per kilo; metal is worth 10 pesos per kilogram; bronze, is 200 pesos per kilo; and kali is worth 40 pesos per kilogram.
(The Monthly Takings)
But their toil, as well as their income, doesn’t end in an everyday basis. They store up some preferred scraps, which they send to Lucena on a monthly frequency, aboard a trucking company's ten-wheeler. She also added that they have an account of each member’s contribution before they send these to Lucena, in order for them to receive the rightful amount as counterpart of their kalakal.
Why Scavenging?
Though most of them had ventured in other jobs before, such as doing other people's laundry, working for construction companies and being one of the city's workforce (as street cleaners), they said that they just can't make the most out of it because sometimes even these jobs don't pay as much as garbage-picking. They also say that these jobs are way harder compared to garbage-picking and sometimes even require transportation cost, which is an added expense on the family's side.
Some Other’s Refuse, the Scavenger’s Return
"It takes a lot of perseverance and hard work to earn a living whatever your job is”, Nanay Guying said.
She also added that garbage-picking is just as 'marangal' as the other professions. She reasons out that this job could be literally dirty but it is not a “dirty job”, it is not a crime. In fact, this livelihood is making the most out of the other people's refuse, turning something useless into useful.
Unlike a typical boy at his age, Boboy loves to spend his past time
in the the dumpsite during Saturdays, which he
considers a Treasure Hunting Day.
Not a Scavenger Forever
In this mountain of trash, stands a mountain of dreams for Buboy, a 13-year old, Grade VI student. His parents, who both earn a living in the dumpsite, would never allow Buboy or any of their children to scavenge. But Buboy would insist. Because no matter how filthy it is, the dump site had become his favorite playground. Scavenging is like a treasure hunting for him. Every scrap he would pick means an additional amount for his baon and his school needs.
He had witnessed how his humble parents toil in this, according to him, “a huge trash can”, and he wouldn’t want to witness it for the rest of his life. Scavenging had inspired him to do well in school, so that one day; he could be able to pluck out his family from this place. At a young age, he knows exactly what he wants and it is surprising to hear a 13-year old say, “I am doing it now, so I will not do it in the future”. Buboy wants to be an engineer or a public servant someday. But through it all, he wants to help his parents and his siblings. Because, just like the plastic bottles, papers, cartons and the like, he believes that their lives could be more “usable” away from this mountain of trash.
