Solid waste board urged: Ensure plastic recycling

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City Council has asked the Solid Waste Management Board to consider issuing a resolution recom-mending for acting mayor Edgardo Labella to direct the Association of Barangay Councils and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry to deliver the non-rigid plastic waste materials collected by them to the intermediate plastic waste recycling facility inside the Inayawan Landfill.

This is to promote waste reduction and minimize solid wastes disposal in the private landfill where the city government is paying following the closure of the Inayawan Landfill.

City Councilor Ma. Nida Cabrera, in a resolution, said there is a facility inside the Inayawan landfill called the Mansei Recycle Systems Co. Ltd. which converts plastic wastes into fluff fuel.

Cabrera said the city government should make use of the facility which allows it to gain revenue from the sale of fluff fuel from the recycled plastic waste.

She said the city government would not only earn but also reduce the volume of waste disposed in the private landfill in Consolacion. As of now, the city government is paying P1,500 per ton of garbage, P800 of which goes to the private hauler while the P700 as tipping fee.

“A report by the World Bank (WB) entitled ‘What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management,’ estimates that the trash generated by Philippine cities will increase to 165 % in 2025 as a consequence of a projected 47.3-percent hike in urban population by 2025 and a projected doubling of municipal solid waste generation per capita at 0.9 kilogram per day by 2025 from the current 0.5 kilogram, presenting a direct correlation between the per capita level of income in cities and the amount of waste per capita that is generated,” the resolution reads.

Cabrera said the analysts of World Bank said that “as a country urbanizes and population becomes wealthier, the consumption of inorganic materials such as plastics and glass increases, while the relative organic fraction decreases.”

She said that such phenomenon is already occurring in the City of Cebu.

Cabrera said there are initiatives that need to be scaled-up to promote waste reduction and minimize the volume of solid waste disposed to landfills so that the city can save funds for other development programs.

The City Council also asked the SWMB to work for the finalization of the 10-year Solid Waste Plan with the consultation of various stakeholders. It likewise encouraged the SWMB to strictly monitor and regulate the use of plastic shopping bags and finalize the Rules and Regulations of City Ordinance 2343 known as the “No Plastic Saturday Ordinance of the City of Cebu.”

Cabrera asked the SWMB to utilize the P55 million grant from the 2012 Local Governance Support Fund of the Department of the Interior and Local Government through the project proposal entitled “Establishing Materials Recovery Facility in Cebu City Barangays.”

The project of DILG is to upgrade the city’s centralized MRFs in Barangays Kalunasan and Talamban, and possibly other sites after securing prior approval from the DILG. — (FREEMAN)