Re-Store plans to create an online eco-conscious community whereby any business and individuals in the Metro Manila—from restaurants to offices, schools to houses—can post their unwanted but usable equipment, furniture, computers, books, etc. The community can then search for the item in the website www.Re-Store.ph and offer to take the items off their original owners’ hands for free. Simply, the project aims to build a nationwide gifting movement by matching unwanted goods with individuals who can use them and to create eco-opportunities. Not only does the environment benefit from this system, it will also save businesses and individuals thousands of pesos in waste disposal and procurement costs, while forging closer ties among local community.
2. What specific need/problem does it address?
I would like to help solve the problem on waste management in Metro Manila. For at least a decade, the situation has become increasingly difficult to deal with. At present there are two major landfills used for storage of Metro Manila’s municipal solid waste: (1) the modern sanitary landfill in San Mateo, Rizal, and (2) the dumpsite in Payatas, Quezon City.
The crisis began in late 1999. Residents of San Mateo blocked the road leading to the dump site. They complained of the waste materials that fell off some 1,000 heavy trucks that passed by their homes daily. In early 2000 a major landslide occurred at the dumpsite in Payatas killing a large number of people living as scavengers at the site.
Today the small dumpsites are filling up quickly because Metro Manila produces 8,700 tons of garbage every day. No large-scale solution to the problem is yet in sight.
3. How did it start?
It’s a product of World Merit (www.worldmerit.org) group discussion which I initiated and dubbed as FREE-CYCLE MOVEMENT. The idea evolved to this platform, Re-Store Project.
The project website is under construction and is expected to be launched on November 2013.
