If there is one thing that I have taken away from staying in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental is this : meeting a lot of locals, Bayawanis and non-Bayawanis who have their own advocacies, individually or as families. Staying at Tatay Dagsa's Art Sanctuary can testify to this fact. He have a lot of possible advocacies that he is passionate about our environment. In his numerous tours of the country, his advocacy is this:
"Share the road, clean the air"
Another one is GOING BACK TO BASICS, using driftwood. This excludes all the ART that he can come up with them.
His family will agree with me when I say that when it comes to driftwood, he loves to use them in their everyday lives. Driftwoods that we think have got no usage, he can still make something out of it, and personally use them. Including his family.
As Bayawan is rich of bamboos, old and new innovations can be found in his household. Not forgetting those BAMBOO BIKES. Cycling around the city, people immediately knew who we were from seeing those bikes alone, his guests.
Anyone who gets inside his cafe will see bamboo mugs, straws, stirrer, some are coconut teaspoons and he have his own coconut cup for his coffee. Need I say more? Yes, he appreciates using an eco-bag rather than plastic bags. The household wastes are also segregated properly.
How much plastics do we use everyday?
Over the last ten years we have produced more plastic than during the whole of the last century and 50% of the plastic we use, we use just once and throw away.
What are the things that we use once then throw away?
Flying with Cebu Pacific on my way to Manila early this week, I can't helped but notice the plastic stirrer for my coffee. It was red with white stripes but I wasn't sure if it was plastic.
Even starbucks stores now use eco ones.
Speaking to one of the plane attendants before the plane landed, their catering services will need to be contacted in regards to changing the airlines plastic to bamboo ones.
Bamboo innovations in Bayawan is not known in the country and although bamboo bikes is being made there, they are not alone in making them. Pangasinan too makes them but done differently.
Under the Cebu Pacific napkin are bamboo straws made by Tatay Dagsa and his team. I got them for my mom so they have different hole sizes, incase she gets hard-up using one.
When it comes to straws, nothing is more eco-friendly than these. I've seen metal ones, cardboard ones... have you seen a much better one?
Disclaimer : image from 
At Dagsa's Cafe, we used bamboo stirrers when drinking brewed coffee.
Can this be applicable to airlines, cafes, restaurants in the Philippines? Definitely! Other establishments use them already. Abroad or in the Philippines, there are already wooden ones. Bamboo stirrers can easily be made, produced and it's not impossible to do the transition.
The Philippines is rich of bamboo and they're easily propagated. Let's use them and create some livelihood.
This can easily be done, we only need to be aware that we can do our bit to make a change.
How much of the world's plastic pollution is decreased if we do a little change this way? It may seem small but IT's A START.
Our coffee will taste a lot better! Promise.
Will you rather have the plastic ones or the bamboo ones?
All other images are mine, taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7.
Reference:
22 facts about plastic pollution and 10 things we can do about it
#sharetheroad #cleantheair #tataydagsa #bamboocoffeestirrers #bayawan #ecowatch #cebupacificair #macroasiacorp #macs