Iwas Paputoxic Drive in Caloocan City Presses People-, Pet- and Planet-Friendly Welcome to the New Year
29 December 2025, Caloocan City/Quezon City. A few days before the much-anticipated countdown to the New Year, the EcoWaste Coalition teamed up with Barangay 179 in Caloocan City to drum up support for a people-, pet- and planet-friendly welcome to 2026.
At the Iwas Paputoxic community program and motorcade held in collaboration with Punong Barangay Marlon Palmere and Kagawad Felinel “Ayang” Te, the EcoWaste Coalition appealed to the residents of Barangay 179 in particular, and all citizens in general, to ditch the use of firecrackers and fireworks in welcoming the New Year.
As a substitute for firecrackers and fireworks, the group encouraged the people to make use of safe, emission-free, home-made noisemakers to minimize the negative impacts of the New Year celebrations on people, especially the children, the elderly, and the sick; companion cats and dogs, as well as strays; and Mother Earth.
“We are one with our partner, the EcoWaste Coalition, in encouraging residents to welcome and celebrate the New Year in a way that will foster recognition and respect for our right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment,” said Kagawad Te, Chairperson of the Committee on Women and Family, and the Committee on Environment. “Hard-earned money is better spent for healthy 'salu-salo' for the whole family to enjoy rather than for firecrackers and fireworks, which are known to cause injuries, fires, and pollution in the form of intense noise, toxic smoke and hazardous residual waste.”
EcoWaste Coalition National Coordinator Aileen Lucero thanked the officials of Barangay 179 and their constituents for being mindful of the negative effects of firecrackers and fireworks on people, pets (and also stray cats and dogs), and the planet, and for supporting the Iwas Paputoxic advocacy for public health and safety and for environmental protection.
“We encourage all communities to take extra steps to educate and win over their constituents in favor of cleaner, healthier and more sustainable New Year festivities by avoiding the purchase and use of firecrackers and fireworks that are loaded with hazardous chemicals,” she said.
“We need to let go of this dangerous and highly polluting tradition of ushering in the New Year with toxic pollution that harms respiratory health, explosive booms that scare and traumatize cats and dogs, accidental fires, and senseless injuries -- with victims mostly children and youth,” she added.
Equipped with pots and pans and other alternative noisemakers and with sirens from ambulances and fire trucks ringing loudly, Barangay 179 officials and personnel and the contingent from the EcoWaste Coalition, together with the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection, Kankaloo Fire Rescue, Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Department, and Sangguniang Kabataan representatives, drove around the community to encourage the residents to go for healthier and safer New Year celebrations without firecrackers and fireworks.
Here are some ways of “making noise” to usher in the New Year without spending on firecrackers and fireworks, and causing injuries, fires, toxic smoke and trash:
- Use the lids of pots and pans as cymbals.
- Repurpose empty cans into maracas.
- Flatten bottle crowns and turn them into instant tambourines.
- Jiggle your piggy banks.
- Fill paper and plastic containers with “bato, buto, barya or tansan” to create “pa-alog” or shakers.
- Knock empty coconut shells.
- Honk bicycle or car horns.
- Switch on the radio, ring the alarm clock, play ringtones altogether.
- Clap your hands, stomp your feet, laugh your lungs out, and bid your worries goodbye.
- Sing any lively song together and conclude with kisses and hugs for a better and healthier New Year.
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