According to Lee Junia, General Manager of Toyota Makati, Inc., waste management is a critical area of their operations.
“We want to make sure that we handle all of our waste products properly. Tulad ng baterya, ang customer iiwan lang iyan sa dealers, eh,” he shared. (Just like [used car] batteries, the customers just leave them with the dealers.)
Toyota Makati partnered with ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya Foundation, Inc.’s environment arm Bantay Kalikasan to properly dispose its used lead-acid batteries and electronic wastes. Although they already have a Department of Natural Resources accredited hauler, Junia said that the partnership with Bantay Kalikasan “is a better way of ensuring that waste management is done properly and at the same time whatever waste products we have is repurposed in a better way.”
Under the partnership, Toyota Makati will turnover their collected used lead-acid batteries (ULABs) and waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) to Bantay Kalikasan. These wastes will be properly recycled and disposed by BK’s partner treaters, Oriental and Motolite Marketing Corporation and Envirocare Management Precision, Inc. OMMC will recycle ULABs while Envirocare will recover significant metals such as copper from the e-wastes. The monetary value will be donated to BK.
Susan Afan, ALKFI’s Managing Director, explained that the donation will benefit BK’s eco-tourism areas all over the Philippines. “Their donation will support eco-tourism sites like organic farms and will give livelihood to these communities.
“We are doing our best to use the money that we are able to get from recycling to help families all over the Philippines start with some type of livelihood so they can help themselves, their families, and our whole country so they can also preserve and protect our environment,” she pointed out.
Afan also believes that aside from having wonderful cars, we should also be conscious on making sure that we keep our air clean and automobile batteries should be disposed of properly so we can take care of our environment “not just for our generation but for generations to come.”
On the other hand, Junia enthused that the partnership is also “a wonderful way of making sure that we protect the environment and at the same time, have a concrete impact in terms of the initiatives of ABS-CBN Lingkod Kapamilya through Bantay Kalikasan.”
Junia added that all Toyota vehicles are Euro 4 compliant as mandated by the government. Vehicles that are Euro 4 compliant have about 50% less emission of carbon monoxide than the former ones which have Euro 2 compliant engines.
To donate ULABs and WEEE, visit www.abs-cbnfoundation.com or call 415-22-72 local 3742.
