Mandaue wants efficient disposal of residual waste

CEBU, Philippines - The head of the Mandaue City Solid Waste Management Board is still studying how wastes from the city’s 27 barangays would be delivered to Consolacion town following the ratification by the city council of Mayor Jonas Cortes’ endorsement which seeks to allow the city to unload its residual wastes at a private landfill in Consolacion.

Engr. Ricardo “Gaga” Mendoza said the board will tackle next week the procedure of delivery of the city’s residual waste to Asian Energysystem Corporation, the company that runs the landfill in Consolacion town.

He said that with the closure of the Umapad open dumpsite in 2007 the city at present does not have a “transfer station” where all the city’s garbage will be compiled together.

The open dumpsite and is now being transformed into an eco-park and a sanitary landfill.

And due to the lack of a transfer station, Mendoza said one of the options is to send some personnel to inspect its garbage trucks and see to it these carry purely residual waste before these are allowed to proceed to the private landfill. The private landfill only accepts residual wastes.

The city earlier decided to temporarily bring its garbage to Consolacion town after it was found out that unloading garbage at the Umapad dumpsite could hamper the ongoing rehabilitation of the area.

The open dumpsite was ordered closed during Cortes’ first term of office but its closure also paved the way for an opening of a one-hectare sanitary landfill and an eco-park in the same site.

Mendoza also said that a one-day seminar was held last Monday at the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) following MCPO director P Sr/Supt Noel Gillamac’s request that policemen be allowed to become deputized eco-wardens of the city.

Mendoza said that he lectured them on climate change and solid waste management while Placido Jerusalem, head of the Solid Waste Enforcement team, talked about the enforcement of R.A. 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act and the city ordinance on solid waste. (FREEMAN)