A community vegetable garden in Barangay Casilagan here featuring tulip flowers made of almost 9,000 recycled plastic bottles has been drawing tourists to the village since it opened last week.

In an interview on Friday, its village chairperson, Sani Subido, said the plastic bottles were collected from the homes of constituents, and from officials themselves during their meetings.

“We initially thought of creating landscapes along our barangay roads. But our secretary suggested instead to make tulip flowers” he said.

The project was established in a 500-square meter land lent by Subido’s kin.

“It used to be our community vegetable garden, but we did not plant on it lately because we thought the owners will already utilize their land. However, it was again lent to us so we created the tulip farm on it. We also continued to plant vegetables for the consumption of the whole community,” he said.

Ever since the village attraction was opened last week, tourists were coming in as the admission is free.

“But we have placed donation boxes. The collection from the donation boxes will be used for the maintenance of the place,” Subido said.

The village chief said they are now planning to transform the tulip farm into a Christmas village come December.

With the newly-established village attraction. Subido said they are hoping to encourage everyone to recycle their solid waste to protect the environment, especially with the global warming trend.

“We continuously encourage residents to have two bins – one for the recyclables and one for non-recyclables. We also placed trash bins all over the community, and it helped our barangay lessened garbage collection,” he said.

He added that their barangay is serious in solid waste management because it is good for the environment, and is good for the people as well.

“We just want a clean environment for everyone,” Subido said. (PNA)