[OPINION] Waste is political. Binaliw shows why zero waste is a matter of justice.

The recent collapse at the Binaliw landfill in Cebu is a painful reminder that behind every discussion about waste are real people — workers, waste pickers, and families — whose lives are placed at risk by neglect, unsafe systems, and policy failures. For those who work closest to our waste, danger is not abstract. It is daily, physical, and sometimes fatal.

For many Filipinos, Binaliw inevitably recalls another moment we hoped would never be repeated: the Payatas trash slide more than two decades ago, which killed hundreds of waste pickers and their families. That tragedy shocked the nation and forced us to confront the deadly consequences of open dumping, poor regulation, and the invisibility of informal waste workers.

It was in response to Payatas that the Philippines enacted Republic Act No. 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. The law was meant to ensure that no community — and no worker — would again be placed in such danger. It laid out a vision of waste reduction, segregation at source, recycling, composting, and safe, decentralized systems led by local governments.

Where RA 9003 has been implemented faithfully, it has worked. Communities are cleaner. Waste is reduced. Resources are recovered. And at the heart of these successes are waste workers and waste pickers — people who do the difficult, often dangerous work of handling what society discards.

Yet decades after Payatas, the tragedy at Binaliw tells us a hard truth: our work is not yet done.

Experts estimate that there are between 1.8 and 2.3 million waste workers and waste pickers in the Philippines. But even this figure is uncertain, because many remain informal, unregistered, and unseen. They work without contracts, without adequate protective equipment, and often without access to health care or social protection. They are essential to our waste systems — yet excluded from the protections those systems should provide.

This invisibility has consequences. When workers are not formally recognized, safety is compromised. When livelihoods are informal, accountability disappears. And when policy focuses only on infrastructure or technology, human lives are treated as secondary concerns.

It is in this context that recent moves to repeal the incineration ban must be examined critically. Incineration is often presented as a quick fix to landfill crises — but it does not address the root causes of waste. It locks governments into expensive, centralized facilities that require a constant supply of waste, undermining efforts to reduce, reuse, and recycle. It places additional health and environmental risks on communities and workers while diverting public funds away from proven, labor-intensive solutions such as segregation, composting, and recycling. Most importantly, incineration threatens the livelihoods of waste workers and waste pickers by destroying materials that could otherwise be recovered, reused, and kept in circulation.

Incineration may make waste disappear — but it does not make the problem go away.

The lesson of Binaliw must be clear: we cannot allow another Payatas, another Binaliw, another preventable loss of life.

We already have a law that points us in the right direction. RA 9003, when fully and honestly implemented, reduces waste volumes, avoids dangerous dumping practices, and promotes systems that are safer for both communities and workers. But implementation alone is not enough. We also need to recognize and protect the people who make ecological waste management possible.

This is why the call for a Magna Carta for Waste Workers is both urgent and overdue. Such a measure would formally recognize waste workers and waste pickers as workers, guarantee safer working conditions, provide access to health care and social protection, protect the right to organize, and ensure that those who bear the risks of waste management are no longer left behind.

This is not only a labor issue. It is a public health issue. It is an environmental issue. It is a matter of justice.

Let us honor those who lost their lives — not only with remembrance but with resolve.

Let the tragedy at Binaliw be the last of its kind. We can help ensure that, through faithful implementation of RA 9003 and the passage of a Magna Carta for Waste Workers — so that no one else has to risk their life just to clean up after the rest of us. – Rappler.com

Froilan Grate is the regional coordinator and executive director of GAIA Asia Pacific. He is a committed environmental justice campaigner who has assisted more than 20 cities/municipalities in the Philippines in developing and improving waste management programs and systems. He has extensive experience in module development and training and legislative work, providing support to legislators at the local government level, especially in areas of policy review.