Medellin earns from garbage

CEBU, Philippines - While other local government units are earning out of recyclable and non-biodegradable wastes, the municipality of Medellin, Cebu has already sold to farmers more than two tons of fertilizers produced from biodegradable wastes collected from all over the town.

Randy Perez, municipal secretary and concurrent head of the local Solid Waste Management Team, said that 60 to 70 percent of five tons of solid wastes collected per day are biodegradable.

 From this, Perez said the town has so far produced more than four tons of organic fertilizers, most of which were already disposed through sale to nearby farm owners.

“We are having really impressive results, we have proven that there is money in garbage,” said Perez.

The town government is selling organic fertilizers at P10 per kilo or P250 per sack.

Majority of the households and establishments in Medellin are already complying with the waste segregation policy.

Around 85 percent of the garbage collected are being segregated and the town assigned three people in the landfill to act as final segregators.

Perez said they are now imposing the “No segregation, No collection” policy.

It is now also a requirement for business establishments to have waste segregation bins to be inspected by personnel from the Solid Waste Management Office before the issuance of business permits.

Perez said he has also been coordinating with the administrators of different schools for the full implementation of the waste segregation policy adding that they are also tapping all schools in Medellin to make their own compost pits.

Medellin is one of the 34 local government units in Cebu earlier reported by the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources as non-compliant to the provisions of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2001.

The three-strike policy of the DENR and the National Solid Waste Management Commission was implemented to discipline LGUs that do not comply with Republic Act 9003.

RA 9003 aims to phase out open dumpsites in favor of sanitary landfills, which eventually must also be phased out. The law orders the establishment of materials recovery facilities (MRF) that enables recyclable materials to be sorted from garbage.

San Francisco, Camotes, a United Nations awardee on solid waste management, passed a municipal ordinance restricting residents from burning their leaves and other garbage as this will contribute to carbon emissions.

Segregated biodegradable garbage collected by the local government are shredded and given back to the locals to be used as organic fertilizers for their backyard farms.

Non-biodegradable items like plastics are recycled by the locals, making them into pillows and bags. This has become their source of living.  (FREEMAN)