Unlike in England there is no government recycling here on Palawan. Instead, rubbish is sorted and suitable materials can then be sold to companies that can use it or sell it on to recycling plants.
This is also the main activity of street kids... begging is illegal here; that doesn’t always stop them but when the police are about they take to the rubbish.
This is also the main activity of street kids... begging is illegal here; that doesn’t always stop them but when the police are about they take to the rubbish.
If ever I am unsure of what can be recycled, I just ask the kids here at the safe home, they are experts because when they were alone on the streets it was the only way they could survive. Nim has told me of how he and other kids would spend all night going through the rubbish so they could eat a small simple meal with rice at a cheap road side canteen. Then finding any kind of shelter to sleep, once they slept under a stage in a park after an event, sleeping on only cardboard.
Lots of people can be seen going through rubbish during the day but street kids tend to do it at night when they are less likely they will be caught. It is a difficult way to make a little amount of money as the rubbish is not worth very much. It’s a smelly dirty job, but I don’t mind doing it as I get an idea of how difficult life is for those on the streets, especially for the poor kids that a forced into it by desperation. Thanks to God, the kids with us no longer have to live like that.
