Every morning, from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., Eladio Betonio sets out on his trisikad loaded with an empty garbage bin.He makes the rounds of barangay Canduman, Mandaue City, going house to house picking up food scraps, paper and other trash that nature can decompose. The household castoffs aren't for a backyard piggery. Mang Eladio is one of 10 collectors called “Biomen”, the name given by Canduman barangay captain, Leo Jabas, to the squad of barangay workers at the lead of a waste segregation and composting campaign that has reduced the volume of the community's waste by 40 percent and produced income for Canduman. The efforts are paying off. In Canduman, many homes keep two trash cans each, one for “malata” items like food, paper, fruit and vegetable peelings and another for non-biodegradable garbage like plastic and bottles. Everyday, about 600 to 700 kilos of garbage are picked up from homes and establishments in Canduman. The Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) in the barangay sells the compost as fertilizer at P50 per sack. A richer variety which uses African Nightcrawlers to turn the soil is sold at P250 per sack. Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes has taken notice, and is encouraging other barangays to follow Canduman's experiment. Jabas credits the success of the project to a wide information campaign and “strong political will” . He has drawn the ire of residents who don't want to follow waste segregation rules of the barangay: If you don't sort your garbage, it doesn't get collected. “But what are 5 or 6 residents out of the 19,000 people who appreciate our efforts?” he said. The recycling facility is not at its best output yet, he said, but starting it up has laid the foundation of a garbage success story for the barangay and a new economic enterprise. “It is better to start this type of project early when the elections are still far off or else you will lose the election by having so many enemies,” Jabas said in jest. “I even asked one of my staff if we should do a mock arrest just to show people that we are serious about arresting those who do not segregate their garbage. Maybe we really do need to arrest people sometimes.” After reading books and researching on his own about recycling and composting , Jabas started the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) last March in a rented 600-square-meter lot. The barangay hired 10 workers as “biomen” to collect the segregated trash in the neighborhood and process the waste in compost pits. Jabas said that with the demand for compost materials growing, the project area will soon become too small. He said he plans to expand the facility to about 1,000 square meters since the facility can no longer keep up with the growing demand for natural fertilizers. Their clients include schools, the Department of Agriculture, the Aboitiz Group, among others. The barangay captain explained that the MRF operating costs is just breaking even with some profit earned by the barangay. But once more people participate, the project will be earning even more. Jabas said he wants to see the MRF developed as an economic enterprise for the barangay next year, earing clear profit for the barangay. | 
