This year’s procession of the Black Nazarene which lasted for 22 hours yielded more garbage in the streets of Manila compared to previous years, the Task Force Cleanup of the city government said on Wednesday.

Che Borromeo, head of Task Force Manila Cleanup, said they have collected 65 truckloads or 341.29 tons of garbage from Jan. 7 to 10, compared to last year’s 172.29 tons.

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The Task Force also collected a “new record” of 12 truckloads or 69.43 tons of garbage from the Traslacion proper on Monday morning until 9:30 a.m. the following day. In the same period last year, Borromeo said they collected 34.86 tons of garbage.

The piles of trash mostly consist of plastic water bottles, styrofoam food containers and utensils, plastic cups, cigarette butts, wrappers, plastic bags, newspapers and carton boxes, he added.

Borromeo attributed the bigger volume of trash to the higher number of devotees who participated in this year’s grand procession, which was estimated at 3.5 million.

“We have more garbage now as compared to recent years because of the huge number of devotees who participated in the procession. The procession itself lasted 22 hours, so the longer the procession, the higher volume of garbage it leaves in its wake,” Borromeo said.

Borromeo said the city government’s big equipment like dump trucks and street sweeper truck could not penetrate confined roads where the “andas” or carriage of the Black Nazarene passed through.

“Since our big trucks cannot penetrate narrow streets, we simply positioned them in several locations. Each can carry up to 20 tons of garbage. Dito muna inipon ‘yung mga basurang nakolekta ng ating mga kariton bago itapon (We place the collected garbage here before disposing them),” he added.

Zero-waste advocacy group EcoWaste earlier criticized Nazarene devotees for “lack of respect for the environment” after leaving piles of trash in the streets of Manila despite Mayor Joseph Estrada’s appeal for a “trash-less” Traslacion. The group noted that some devotees even dumped bottles or plastic bags with human urine on the roads. RAM

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