Naga unveils ecology zone

Naga City yesterday unveiled its ecology zone, a facility that aims to solve the city’s increasing problem on waste management.

“We spent P3-4 million each year for garbage collection alone, and it’s not even efficient. Hopefully, with this new program we will solve this problem on garbage, and earn from it at the same time,” said City Mayor Valdemar Chiong in an interview.

After two years of planning, Chiong officially opened a five-hectare resource recovery center or the “ecopark” in sitio Osog, barangay Pangdan of the same city.

This ecology zone will be handled by private contractor Fdr-Con Co. Inc., which in April this year had signed a memorandum of agreement with the city government through Chiong.

Under the MOA, Fdr will collect the city’s waste and segregate it at its new facility in Pangdan. Chiong said the contractor will shoulder all the cost, while the city will only pay it P750 for every ton of waste collected from households and establishments. The city averages 10 tons of waste daily.

This may be a better deal, he said, compared to the P3 million to P4 million budget they allot for garbage collection each year, which is not seen to be successful.With Fdr, the city, if it continues to average 10 tons of solid waste everyday, will only have to shell out P2.7 million each year. Apart from the possible savings it will get from the deal, Chiong said they are also hoping to earn once other local government units or industries start using the facility.

Fulgencio “Paul” Revalde, president of Fdr-Con Co. Inc., said other industries or LGUs that will use the facility will have to pay an additional 10 percent as “tipping fee” to Naga.Revalde said they have already made talks with Mandaue City and the Mactan Economic Processing Zone.

The ecopark, which is situated about five minutes away from the main highway by car, is set to be operation by the end of July when the construction of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) has shall been finished, said Revalde.

He added that two years from now the entire facility, which is expected to cost at least P800 million, will be fully operational.

As to how the contractor can earn from the undertaking, Revalde explained that apart from the fees that they will get from the collection of garbage, they are also hoping to get a bigger income from the garbage itself.

Once the garbage reaches the facility, all recyclable materials will be segregated in the MRF. These recyclable items will then be sold to junk shops, he added.

The project aims to have a “zero waste” for Naga, Revalde said, hence, even waste like candy wrappers and cellophane plastic or what are termed as oil-based materials will be turned into “alternative fuel” which will then be sold to power plants.

The facility will also house a Refuse-derived Fuel (RDF) facility which will convert these oil-based materials into fuel by steaming them.

Revalde also said they will also have a “biogas digester” which will make methane out from organic materials like food waste.

This methane, he said, will then energize the facility’s power generator.

“Under the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, landfilling is prohibited, hence, we will do away with that. With this project, we assure Naga, that all garbage will be recycled, and nothing goes to waste,” he said. (FREEMAN NEWS)