San nicolas: The heritage town of San Nicolas in Ilocos Norte has launched its "Palit-Basura for Balik-Eskwela" program, which encourages students to exchange plastic waste for school supplies. This initiative aims to promote environmental sustainability by reducing plastic waste through an incentive-based approach.

According to Philippines News Agency, the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO) is urging learners from Grades 1 to 6 in San Nicolas to participate. The program is designed to foster a cleaner and more sustainable community. Robinsons Ilocos, a private sector environmental partner, supports this initiative by providing school supplies and essential apparel as part of its corporate social responsibility efforts.

The program allows eligible students to collect and submit plastic waste, such as empty wrappers of powdered juice, milk, coffee, creamer, and instant noodles, to MENRO. Participants can earn points from May 14 to 27, Monday through Thursday, between 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. The first 100 students to accumulate at least 100 points will be rewarded by Robinsons Mall through its "Love in a Box or Bag" initiative.

Clea Ballester, a local resident and mother of two, expressed enthusiasm for the program upon learning of it. She encouraged her daughters to participate, highlighting the program's dual benefits of teaching solid waste management and assisting parents preparing for the upcoming school year.

MENRO stated that the collected plastic waste would be converted into useful items or recycled. San Nicolas is an early adopter of the "KalikaSaNicolas" waste segregation program, focusing on minimizing solid waste. Since 2011, the municipality has prioritized raising environmental awareness and established a five-hectare engineered sanitary landfill to manage domestic residual and hazardous waste from all barangays.