City working on ways vs climate pollutants

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government is taking the first steps to implementing a system that would address the problem of climate pollutants.

“Ang gihimo nato karon is gi-integrate sa nato. Gikuha sa nato ang data og unsay present karon sa garbage collection, total number of garbage disposal, number of tons,” said Councilor Dave Tumulak.

Tumulak and Councilor Nida Cabrera recently came from Surabaya, Indonesia where they attended a workshop on the mitigating short-lived climate pollutants organized by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment of Japan.

Tumulak said they are now coordinating with national agencies, including those from the countries that sent representatives to the seminar, for possible exchange of technologies.

The city aims to make use of – or even earn from – materials that have already been disposed.

“Naa say e-waste, electronic waste mga cellphones, tanang mga electronic parts nga naay mopalit ana by piece. Then kana dawaton na diri ihatag pud na sa ubang mga countries nga nagkinahanglan ug mga gold, copper kay pisapisahon mana,” he said.

“Naa nay mercury ang cellphone. So kinahanglan i-extract reuse, recycle. Makig-tie up ta in terms of facility or property… depende,” Tumulak added.

Recycling these materials would not only lessen the quantity of garbage but would also help lessen pollutants.

Tumulak said the first step to make this possible is to strengthen segregation of garbage at the barangay level.

“Naa may uban nga mga barangay pa nga wala pa gyud kapatuman, anang malata ug di malata but continuing ang atong information dissemination,” he said.

Earlier, Tumulak acknowledged that in the fast growing city like Cebu, officials must be prepared for the tons of garbage produced.

In a letter sent to Tumulak last month, Kazuya Kumagai, director of the Office of Sound Material-Cycle Society Waste Management and Recycling Department Ministry of the Environment in Japan, said that the population and income growth rates continue to accelerate in Asia’s urban areas, municipal solid waste is becoming increasingly challenging to cope with, and finding solutions to manage the waste problem is increasingly important.  (FREEMAN)