At a road side stands the squat barangay hall of Barangay San Fernando, under the shade of caimito and santol trees. At the entrance a sign says, Banaag Recyclers Association. Banaag means ray of light. At the small entrance to the hall, 5 women with beaming faces sat in front of sewing machines propped on top of makeshift tables. Under the tables and on top of some chairs are bags, mats, and hats of different sizes sewn from empty juice packs recovered from waste. The women at the machines are trying out different styles and different color combinations of their products. For them it is a new enterprise, new skills learned, and new opportunities.

The Local Government of Buenavista has leased the sewing equipment to the women at P500 each machine per year. Each piece costs P2,500.00. The Barangay pays for electricity costs at P40.00 per machine per month, aside from allowing the women to use the space at the barangay hall. The barangay council in return asks that the association teaches other women in the barangay their skills in fashioning things out of plastic recyclable materials. The women talk about trying out the making of plastic clothes bags, umbrellas, bed mattresses, slippers, beach mats. The doy packs are a sturdy material and lend themselves easily to various shapes and sizes.

The members of the group have received their training from the GTZ-AHT Project Solid Waste Management for Local Government Units in November 2005 . One month after the training, the pledge of support from the local government units materialized and not long after that, the women have started practicing their new found craft. The association has been formally organized and the women each paid from their first earnings the first installment of P250.00 for the association’s capital build-up. Ten per cent of the women’s incomes are set aside for the coffers of the association.

Elizabeth Valenzona, president of the association reveals that each member can easily produce 2 big plastic bags a day at P200.00 each. The caretaker of the cemetery who supplies the empty juice packs at ten centavos each delivers at least 1,000 packs per month. It is not difficult to imagine the mounds of garbage that would have been piled or scattered along the roadside, clogging up the drainage, burnt in empty lots, or would have to be collected by the dump truck and disposed of at the dump site.

Just as important as the environmental benefits reaped from recycling the non-biodegradable wastes is the sense of self-reliance that is slowly felt by the women of San Fernando, Buenavista, banaag, a warm ray of light.