270 tons of trash after the Sinulog

CEBU - The close to 3 million people, who watched last Sunday’s Sinulog grand parade, left a total of 270 tons of garbage for the city’s Department of Public Services (DPS) to clean up.

The DPS, which is tasked to handle the city’s garbage disposal, has noted an increase in the amount of garbage collected.

DPS Chief Dionisio Gualiza said that this year’s figure is 40 tons more than what was collected last year.

Gualiza said that the garbage collected was 250 tons as of 5 a.m. yesterday, but at the end of the day, it reached to as much as 270 tons from the carousel route.

Reports said that a total of 2.8 million people witnessed the Sinulog Mardi Gras.

“Nagka daghan gyud ang mga tawo nga nitan-aw so mag expect gyud to nga modaghan ang mga basura. Unya compared to last year’s Sinulog mas taas na gyud ang atong coverage sa pag-limpyo kay niabot na ta sa pag-limpyo sa City link terminal, Ayala ug sa pier area,” Gualiza said.

The joint DPS taskforce composed mostly of street sweepers started its clean up drive at 8 p.m. last Sunday. A total of 500 personnel from the DPS were involved in the clean up drive, according to Councilor Edwin Jagmoc, chairman of the committee on public services.

To haul the trash to the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill, 22 garbage trucks and four payloaders were used.

  “Grabi gyud ang mga tawo bisan nga 11 na sa gabii (Sunday) daghang gihapon ang tawo niadto sa Basilica Sto. Nino. ug ang problema gyud nato mao ang Mango Avenue diin bisan 5 na sa buntag daghang gihapon ang tawo nag-standby ug nag-inom” Jagmoc said.

It was at General Maxilom avenue (formerly Mango Avenue ), Jagmoc said that they had problem in their clean up drive considering the number of people in the area particularly in Mango Square.

Jagmoc said that most of the trash they collected were plastic bags and recyclable materials such as paper bags and water bottles. There were also biodegradable waste like fruit peels.

“First, amo pa tong na hinayhinay ug segregate ang mga basura pero pag wala na ang mga taw, dali dali na namong gi hipos ang basura ug wala na namo na-segregate.” he told The FREEMAN.

Jagmoc said that the city collects between 200 to 400 tons of garbage daily.

The clean up effort did not go unnoticed as Acting City Mayor Michael Rama congratulated the street sweepers for a job well done during yesterday’s awards ceremony at the Cebu City Sports Center. — with Bentley Naire Luyong, CIT Mass Comm Intern/NLQ   (THE FREEMAN)