BANTAY Dagat Association partnered with the UN-Habitat Healthy Oceans and Clean Cities Initiative to collect shredded plastics and bottles collected from coastal areas and process them into concrete hollow blocks.
During Kapihan sa PIA on Aug. 7, Bantay Dagat head Raffy Bermejo said these shredded plastics will be processed through their established P5-million Material Recycling Facility.
“Yung role namin is to clean up the coastal areas every Saturday, we are conducting clean-ups, we are recovering these marine litters. We’re sending it to our facility in Daliao, ang gawin natin doon, we will shred all the plastics na makuha natin. Pinuhin natin ‘yan, and then we will mixed it doon sa core sand, gawin natin ‘yang hollow blocks or faber bricks para siguradong hindi na makabalik sa dagat,” Bermejo said.
Bermejo said they collect approximately 920 kilos of plastics a day and mix five kilos of the processed shredded plastics with other components, such as the Portland cement, core sand, and local additives to generate hollow blocks.
“Ang capacity ng ating shredder, six-hundred kilograms per hour, ‘yun yung average. But we tested it a couple of weeks ago, ‘yung nangyayari ang nine-hundred to one ton, kaya na po natin siyang i-shred in 30 minutes, depending on how we load the shredder,” Bermejo added.
He said they initially have one machine for four-inch concrete hollow blocks, one for six-inch concrete hollow blocks, one machine for faber bricks, four manually operated molders for other faber bricks designs.
The association also urged the locals of Davao City to continuously segregate plastics from other waste that could be useful in MRF.
The Davao City Bantay Dagat Association seeks to effectively and patiently clean up the city’s drainage system, the coast and riverbanks including sidewalks, parks, and playgrounds, officially endorsed by the Ancillary Services Unit by the City Mayor’s Office Davao and Davao City Environment and Natural Resources Office.
