When floodwaters rose faster than help could arrive, a community responder in Binalbagan town, Negros Occidental turned trash into a lifesaving tool.
Art Rosal of Barangay Paglaum—who assists in logistical support for the town’s emergency response team—grabbed whatever he could find: empty plastic bottles and scraps of styrofoam.
From these, he built an improvised life jacket—a creation that quickly captured the attention of netizens.
Rosal told Brigada News FM on Thursday, November 27, that the idea came to him at the peak of Typhoon Tino’s impact on November 4, the 20th tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year.
As someone assisting responders on the ground, he saw how teams from the Binalbagan Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (LDRRMO) struggled to reach families stranded in waist-deep water.
Faced with that urgency, he felt he had to create something—anything—that could help keep people afloat.
He stuffed each plastic bottle with styrofoam to keep water from entering, making the device buoyant and stable. The result was a lightweight, functional flotation tool that anyone could build using items already found at home.
Engineer Jernie Rondin of the town’s LDRRMO said Rosal’s idea shows how everyday waste materials can be transformed into lifesaving devices. For families who cannot afford commercial life jackets, he noted, this design offers an accessible alternative that costs less than P100.
Rondin added that the improvised jacket also promotes better waste management—turning discarded plastics into something that protects lives instead of polluting communities.
The LDRRMO said it plans to produce more of these flotation devices and replicate the design across barangays, especially since commercial life vests can cost thousands.*
Reymund Titong is a Filipino journalist steadily building his voice in the field of news reporting, driven by a commitment to tell meaningful and relevant stories.
He serves as a correspondent for Rappler, maintains a personal blog on Medium, and is the communications officer of Hope Builders Organization Negros Island.