Just at the start of the year, we sold around 4 months' worth of recyclables, picked up by a junk buyer who paid us a total of P1,068.00. Not bad, since we couldn't just pick up that money anywhere. The junk were mainly paper of all types (corrugated boxes, cardboard, newspapers, white paper, old magazines), a good amount of PET bottles, some tin cans and a LOT of various plastic products (shampoo bottles, lotion containers, detergent and bleach containers). I lost count of how much kilogram of each kind we sold. There were everything of every kind. So there's really cash in trash. The key is simple: segregate. Each household, in fact each person, has to get into the habit of minding his trash. Just a simple question before throwing each piece of trash: where does this belong? Then have an area or a corner at home where everyone can drop in their recyclables according to kind.

We have been doing this recycling routine for almost 3 years now. Even with basic household supplies, everything seems to come in cardboard boxes, hard plastics and elaborate packagings. A small tube of Celeteque facial wash that I use comes in a box meant to make it look bigger, with a sort of stand inside. It's not anymore surprising that in a few months, we'll be ready again to sell a pile of recyclables.

There's a long list of waste classification that is being implemented in each barangay. But to keep it simple, we just classify ours into three: Biodegradables, Residuals and Recyclables.

• Biodegradables - kitchen and food wastes (vegetable cuttings, fruit peelings, wet paper, etc.) and yard wastes

• Residuals - bathroom wastes, polystyrene plastics (like the Styrofoam), spray cans, foil wrappers (like the shampoo in sachets); these are hauled off to the dumpsite to be used as landfill
• Recyclables - paper of all types as long as they are dry, metal (tin can, iron, etc) plastic containers, glass, PET bottles from soda and water; this is where we can earn a few pesos

Just to give us an idea of how much we can earn: PET bottles are bought at P18/kg, white paper at P8/kg while colored ones are at P1.50/kg and other plastic containers are at P10/kg. The good thing is that with our own efforts to segregate, at source, we get to reduce waste and earn some cash in the process.