Cebu City turns to recycling to solve garbage woes

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Officials will shift focus from finding a site for a new landfill to empowering the barangays to establish their own Material Recovery Facility to reduce the city’s garbage.

This is in relation to the recent flooding which city officials blamed on garbage clogging the drainage.

Department of Public Services Head Dionisio Gualiza admitted that they are having a hard time finding a site for a second sanitary landfill to replace the one in Barangay Inayawan.

The search began in 2007. There are probable areas but none of them seem to fit their requirements.

“Maglisod mi og pangita og pareha kadak-a sa Inayawan. Ang ato lang g’yud ani is ang pag-reduce sa atong waste so we don’t have to find a big site for a landfill,” Gualiza said.

The most appealing solution to the city government at the moment is the establishment of MRFs so barangays can segregate their garbage and salvage those that can be recycled.

Councilor Nida Cabrera, chairwoman of the council’s committee on environment said that if the barangays have their own MRFs, the city government will just have to collect the residue.

This is seen to reduce the city’s garbage by more than half.

Aside from the MRF, they are also helping the barangays to have their own composting facilities.

The city is also set to pilot a waste-to-energy project in Barangay Basak-San Nicolas. The machine will be available to soon which can process garbage and produce a small amount of energy.

The city council has initially authorized the release of P20,000 in assistance to 20 barangays to help the beneficiaries set up an MRF in their barangay.

The rest of the barangays shall receive assistance too until all barangays will have their own recovery facilities.

The Solid Waste Management Board continues its information campaign on the proper disposal of waste because the attitude of the people is the number one cause of the garbage problem.

Engineer Maria Concepcion Encabo, City Planning and Development Office acting chief, said that the city has strong programs for the management of garbage but these programs sometimes fail due to the uncooperative public.

Cabrera said that reducing the garbage at the barangay level also reduces the garbage that is clogging the drainage.

Engineer Guillermo Viola of the Department of Engineering and Public Works Drainage and Flood Control Division confirmed that 90 percent of the cause of damage to drainage is garbage.

Cabrera believes that the city can solve both the drainage problem and the garbage problem at the same time to prevent more flooding.

While the city is dredging the rivers and creeks and canals, the environment team will focus on campaigning for zero waste in all levels of the community – the residential, commercial and large industries.

Based on the record of the DPS, a city resident generates an average half a kilo per day.

On the average, some 50 percent of the garbage generated is organic waste, 17 percent is plastic, 16 percent is paper, while other types of trash make up the rest. – Jessica Ann R. Pareja/BRP (THE FREEMAN)