MANILA, Philippines – Ahead of this year’s All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu urged Filipinos to keep memorial parks and public cemeteries garbage-free.

According to Cimatu, turning graveyards into dumpsites is “a form of disrespect towards the dead.”

“Let us honor our departed loved ones the right way. Let us leave them with our prayers and not with our trash,” he said in a statement on Monday, October 30. 

Littering has been a perennial problem in cemeteries all over the country during Undas, since families often bring with them food, candles, and other paraphernalia when they visit. (READ: 10 ways to observe a garbage-free ‘Undas’)

To keep this year’s Undas an environment-friendly one, Cimatu advised Filipinos who will visit the final resting places of their deceased loved ones to observe the following:

• Bring trash bags for waste segregation. Separate paper, plastic, metal and tin, glass, and food wastes.
• Place food in reusable containers instead of buying food packed in plastic and aluminum foils.
• Bring water containers or jugs instead of buying water in plastic bottles.
• Avoid using plastic utensils.
• Use banig or woven mats, and foldable tables and chairs, instead of using newspapers and plastic sheets.

“The Filipino custom of honoring our deceased loved ones includes prayers, visit to the cemetery, family reunions, and eating together,” the environment chief said.

“However, as we get together for this annual tradition, let us also practice proper waste segregation,” he added.

Cimatu also reminded local government units of proper garbage collection and disposal in designated sanitary landfills. – Rappler.com