BY JEFFREY O. VALISNO, Sub-Editor
Article from business world online
WITH A population of about 12 million, Metro Manila produces as much as 8,600 tons of garbage each day, about a quarter of all the solid waste generated daily in the entire country.
Records from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) show that a single resident in Metro Manila produces an average of 0.7 kilograms of garbage a day, more than double the global average of 0.3 kilograms per person per day.
Only about 10% of garbage generated each day is recycled or composed. The rest is either hauled to various dumpsites, dumped illegally on private land, in rivers and other water systems, or openly burned -- adding to Metro Manila’s already polluted air.
Environment Secretary Ramon Jesus P. Paje said uncollected trash that clogs waterways and drainage systems is one of the major causes of floods and disease outbreaks whose effects can be felt way beyond Metro Manila.
“From flooding to dengue, from polluted rivers and creeks to mountains of trash, from the unnecessary death of fishes that accidentally swallow plastic bags in the seas to global warming, garbage is the common denominator,” Mr. Paje said in a statement.
Why “invisible?”
The severity of Metro Manila’s garbage problem in recent years prompted American visual artist and environmental activist Ann Wizer to set up Invisible Sisters in 2008.
Invisible Sisters is a guild which, by way of weekly workshops, trains mothers and grandmothers to make new products from waste materials like the colored wires from computers, used dry cleaner bags, and old plastic bags.
The group is called Invisible Sisters for at least two reasons. The materials used in the products created are considered trash. Often ignored, this trash becomes in a way, invisible.
Also, the members of the group are from the marginalized sector, who are often ignored in our society and therefore, in some sense, invisible.
“I began in my house in Manila in late August in 2008,” Ms. Wizer said in the group’s website http://invisiblesisters.org
Beyond helping the environment by using trash to make innovative and fashionable products, Ms. Wizer set up Invisible Sisters as a livelihood project to create jobs for housewives and mothers. “The plan was to reach out to those who cannot leave home to work, and give them work to do at home,” she explained.
Before setting up Invisible Sisters in the Philippines, Ms. Wizer founded the XSP Project Foundation in Indonesia in 2002. The Jakarta-based foundation also uses design and education in order to protect the environment and reduce poverty.
“Where there is garbage, there is always poverty. A large part of the world -- primarily in developing countries -- continue to live in extreme poverty within huge global economies of waste,” Ms. Wizer said.
Inspired by senior eco-warrior Ibu Bang Bang in Jakarta (who showed Ms. Wizer how to use old plastic bags to crochet fashionable purses and bags), Ms. Wizer started training Filipinos in how to make new products out of garbage.
“Instead of making more waste, we reuse waste. Instead of employing highly skilled experts, we train the unskilled,” Ms. Wizer said. “The aim is not to make more stuff quickly and cheaply, but to address problems through creative experimentation.”
Disrupting their bingo
Invisible Sisters started with a pilot project in Barangay 157, Zone 14 Tondo, Manila -- considered as one of the poorest barangays in the city.
The training sessions -- which were conducted on Saturday afternoons -- were initially met with skepticism from the women who did not want their regular bingo sessions to be disturbed.
But after seeing the benefits of the training, more women became interested in joining the weekly workshops.
The gatherings help the urban poor mothers and grandmothers develop their craft, provide them with a much needed source of income, and gives them self-confidence and a sense of self worth.
Invisible Sisters then expanded the project to four more groups of women. The guild now has over 150 participants in various parts of Metro Manila.
Using only a crochet hook that costs P30-P35 each, the women use wires, used dry cleaner and plastic bags, hard drives, computer mother boards, cassette and video tapes, and a random variety of unseen factory waste to make a wide variety of products ranging from crocheted blouses, skirts, hats, tablecloths, bags, vanity kits, and clutches.
The project has evolved into a full-grown social enterprise that promotes creative expression, waste management, and augments the income of urban poor women.
“It’s simple problem solving: connecting the dots requiring skills and imagination resulting in new possibilities to create something from nothing,” Ms. Wiser said.
What is needed
Aimee Gloria, Invisible Sisters program director, said the group’s partnership with the Ayala Malls has helped in providing plastic bags and other materials for their products.
Ms. Gloria said the group welcomes donations of plastic bags, electric wires, computer mother boards, and the like.
“Donations of crochet hooks and sewing machines are also welcome,” Ms. Gloria told BusinessWorld in a telephone interview.
And since the Invisible Sisters encourage older women (in their 40s to 70s) to get involved, donations of prescription eyeglasses, frames, and lenses will also be a great help, Ms. Gloria said.
“For many, the simple lack of glasses keeps them from working at their potential: for most of these women, medical, dental, or eye care is beyond reach,” Ms. Gloria said.
“To enable the elderly to participate [in our training workshops] we need to provide eye care, examinations, and glasses,” Ms. Gloria explained.
She said Invisible Sisters is also in need of office equipment since it just moved to its new office and training center courtesy of Gawad Kalinga.
Ms. Gloria said the group will welcome donations of used work tables, desks and chairs, display racks, plastic storage boxes, and other small tools.
The group also needs a computer and a printer, office supplies, and an electric fan, among others.
Ms. Gloria said those who want to help Invisible Sisters can also buy their products from the group’s office in Taguig, or in its partner stores around Metro Manila.
Invisible Sisters is also available for collaboration and co-branding.
“We invite professional designers, theater artists, and fashion houses to collaborate with us by commissioning pieces made by hand from their left-over production scraps or from local waste in Manila,” Ms. Wizer said.
Donations can be brought to the Invisible Sisters office at the Second Floor, Gawad Kalinga Multi-Purpose Bldg., Barangay Pinagsama, Taguig City.
For inquiries, contact Ms. Gloria at 0917-5291230 or Ms. Wizer at invisible.institute@yahoo.com.
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