Mandaue needs bigger facility for trash, says consultant

CEBU, Philippines – Mandaue City's consultant on waste management has recommended that the city finds a new and bigger facility to accommodate the 250 tons of waste generated daily.

"Hopefully, there will be a new facility that can accommodate the 250 to 300 tons of waste everyday," said Dr. Danilo Jaque, the city's consultant on waste management, when he faced the City Council recently.

Jaque was invited by the council to present his achievement and issues with regard to his consultancy services.

He said while the one-hectare landfill in Barangay Umapad has not yet been filled because of the "strict" material recovery facility (MRF) program implementation, there will come a point that it will overflow due to the increasing amount of wastes. Hence, there's a need for a bigger area, he said.

Jaque said the idea of privatizing the garbage collection is also appealing, but the city needs to "weigh" on the best option. He explained that while it is also "advantageous" as the city will not have to worry on waste management, it is also "costly" as the present rate from private companies operating in Cebu is P800 per ton (P200,000 for the 250 tons of daily waste).

Having a landfill is also costly, he said, as the city is in charge of land (buying and management) and monitoring of the waste disposal and all. There are also the post-closing rituals which are mandated under RA 9003, which is also as costly, he said.

"We weight (things) and look for ways (on what is good for Mandaue)," he told the council, when asked what should be best action to take.

For his part, lawyer Ben Cabrido, the city's consultant on environmental matters, disagreed with privatizing the garbage collection for the same reason that is costly.

Cabrido, an environmentalist, proposes that the city slaps higher taxes to "polluters" or those who have more garbage than the usual households. The fees from these polluters will then be used in operating the landfill and the MRFs he said.  (FREEMAN)