QC taps junk shops for garbage program

The Quezon City government has tapped 335 junk shops in 73 barangays as material recovery facilities (MRFs) to accommodate recyclables collected by barangays that do not have facilities for garbage segregation.

Frederika Rentoy, chief of the city’s Environment Protection and Waste Management Department, said a memorandum of agreement was inked between junk shop owners and barangays to tap shops for the waste segregation, reduction and recycling program.

Earlier, Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. directed Rentoy to conduct a study on junk shops as part of the effort of the city government to regulate the operation of junk shops in the city.

"The city government is not against the operation of junk shops, but favors their regulation," Belmonte said.

Rentoy said the total waste materials gathered by junk shops is more than 300,000 kilograms per day, or about 20 per cent of the city’s total generated waste.

Several barangays have already set up their own MRF facility, where collected garbage is segregated and turned into fertilizer. – Perseus Echeminada