Las Pi?as City Mayor Vergel Aguilar yesterday said some 300 households are undergoing training on solid waste management.

He said the participants from Gawad Kalinga Sunshineville and Asuncion BFRV in Barangay Talon II, and Sto. Ni?o in Talon V would join sessions conducted by the City Environment and Sanitation Office alongside Couples for Christ Gawad Kalinga Las Pi?as chapter.

Aguilar said the continuous greening campaign and waste disposal under the ?zero-waste? program would do justice to the city?s winning of the United Nations Environment Award for being one of the cleanest localities in the world.

?Health is a basic human right. We all deserve to live in a cleaner environment. We all desire for a healthy family... a healthy neighborhood... a healthy nation. And the only way to satisfy these desires is to do away with garbage that breeds flies, roaches, rodents and harmful bacteria that can spread diseases in our homes and in our communities,? he said.

Aguilar cited the studies of the National Solid Waste Management Commission Secretariat at the Environment Management Bureau showing that every person in the metropolis generates half a kilo waste daily. With an estimated population of 10.5 million, total waste generated in Metro Manila alone could run up to 5,250 metric tons per day or 162,750 MT a month or 1.95 million MT a year.

The findings indicated also that about 73 percent of 5,250 MT of waste produced daily are collected by dump trucks hired by local government units.

The remaining 27 percent or 1,417.5 MT end up in canals, vacant spaces, street corners, market places, rivers and others.

?Even as the city collects daily, residents must do their share by properly disposing of garbage properly not only to prevent the closure of the city?s landfill but improve the environment as well,? said Aguilar.