Marikina turns junk styros into patios

By Nia Calleja Philippine Daily Inquirer

PHOTO BY ARNOLD ALMACEN

Garbage in, garden delights out.

The Marikina City government since Monday has been churning out hundreds of paving blocks out of used styrofoam packaging and plastic wastes, in a project that shows how recycling can both protect and beautify the environment.

It only takes two workers, a shredder, and a styro-plastic densifier (a three-meter-high piece of equipment fed with raw materials through a cylindrical mouth), to turn trash into two-inch thick blocks durable enough for parks, indoor flooring, or sidewalks.

Apart from providing the city government with an alternative source of construction materials, the project can help reduce Marikinas garbage output and its P30-million annual budget for collecting and hauling household waste to a landfill in Rodriguez, Rizal province.

The shredder and densifier were acquired by the city government for P400,000 under a project dubbed From Wastes to Landscape.

The savings the city will get and the benefits to the environment will definitely surpass the cost of acquiring the technology, according to Oliver Villamena, the assistant city environmental officer.

PHOTO BY ARNOLD ALMACEN

The recipe is quite simple: For every 20 kilos of styrofoam and a corresponding amount of used cooking oil, the machines can produce at least 21 blocks.

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Marikina turns junk styros into patios