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EcoWaste Coalition Lauds CBCP’s Call to Eliminate Wasteful Consumption as Bishop Iñiguez Joins Drive for Zero Waste and the Closure of Dumps

Quezon City. The environmental advocacy group EcoWaste Coalition lauded as “timely and urgent” the latest appeal of the Catholic bishops on the Filipino people “to eliminate wasteful consumption.”

The pastoral letter on ecology “Upholding the Sanctity of Life” should serve as a stimulus for ecological conversion and for greater people’s involvement in the many environmental battles facing the nation, observed the EcoWaste Coalition.

“The bishops hit the nail on the head when they called on our people to get rid of wasteful consumption as crass consumerism is devouring Mother Nature’s finite resources and defacing her with ugly mines, dumps and garbage. Every step of the consumption trail further generates pollutants that are warming the planet,” Calonzo said.

“We find the bishops’ call to eliminate wasteful consumption as timely and urgent if we are to remedy and reverse the dreadful conditions of our environment,” Calonzo added.

Bishop Deogracias S. Iñiguez, Jr., head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) Public Affairs Committee, explained that “as our people fall victim to crass consumerism, we see our society getting addicted to plastic bags and disposables, messing up our habitat, trashing our rivers and seas, and creating a legacy of contaminated dumpsites that threaten public health and the environment.”

The Catholic Church leader from the Diocese of Caloocan also conveyed his unity with the EcoWaste Coalition in calling for the closure, cleanup and rehabilitation of dumpsites and the implementation of the ecological Zero Waste resource management.

“Dumpsites are like gaping wounds of a nation stinking with litter and garbage. We must close and heal these wounds,” Bishop Iñiguez said.

According to Bishop Iñiguez and the EcoWaste Coalition, the continued dependence on dumping and landfilling has become a huge strain on the budget, a scourge on host communities and wildlife, and a curse on the climate.

“I throw my support to the push for Zero Waste resource management being made by the EcoWaste Coalition that will emulate Mother Earth’s closed-loop processes where products are designed to be recycled back to commerce or nature and where nothing is wasted,” Bishop Iñiguez added.

The EcoWaste Coalition also expressed hope that the latest CBCP’s pastoral letter will herald a serious rethinking within the Church on the practical ways of reducing the environmental impacts of religious feasts and rites.

“We hope that the bishops will soon come up with guidelines on how to green our fiestas to make them in harmony with the ecological reforms that our society badly need,” the EcoWaste Coalition said.

EcoWaste Coalition
Unit 320, Eagle Court Condominium, Matalino St.
Quezon City, Philippines
+63 2 9290376
ecowastecoalition@yahoo.com