Burning uncollected garbage worsens the problem

I am all for any policy that protects and cleans up the environment, for as long as it is properly implemented. The stress on the word properly because any policy implemented for its own sake without regard to the consequences runs the risk of only exacerbating the problem.

Take the case of the recent strict implementation by the City of Cebu of collecting only segregated garbage. The truth of the matter is, the strictness did not come from any real desire to segregate. The city had to be strict because it no longer had any choice.

The city had long postponed complying with laws governing the operation of landfills, until its landfill in Inayawan ceased to exist as such and became, for all intents and purposes, just an ordinary dump.

Faced with the legal consequences of failing to comply with the law, as well as prospects of paying stiff fines it can ill afford, the city was forced to plunge into a strict garbage segregation and collection policy it was totally unprepared to implement.

The city hardly has any existing facility to deal with the 400 tons of garbage produced everyday. What you hear from officials is that the city is still "planning" to acquire more of these pieces of equipment.

What the officials are not saying is that until they manage to acquire and set up these pieces of equipment, there is almost absolutely nothing that can be done about the 400 tons of garbage that just keep on coming everyday.

Yet, while the city cannot deal with the incoming garbage, it nevertheless continues to plunge head-long into its strict no-segregation no-collection campaign. Again, this would have ben a very good policy, if only the city was prepared to deal with it.

In the eyes of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., this is like a man attacking the whole of India with a single shotgun. It is like going to war just for the sake of the belligerence, without first ascertaining the supply lines and possible escape routes.

As it is now, because of the total lack of preparedness to implement something so drastic, mountains of uncollected garbage are starting to pile up in many streets and neighborhoods.

And because the city has a stupid ordinance that penalizes people for any garbage found outside their properties even if the garbage is not theirs, they have started to resort to the only means they can effectively deal with their garbage -- burning.

I would like to ask our officials to leave their airconditioned offices and go around the city during afternoons, especially in the suburbs, and they are likely to see plumes of smoke rising from many backyards and open spaces.

These plumes of smoke come from bonfires that burn all types of garbage, including items made of plastic and rubber. We do not need the Clean Air Act to know that burning garbage that includes these toxic materials is very dangerous to health.

And this is happening because of the confluence of many circumstances that all point to only one thing -- the total unpreparedness of the city to implement its new garbage collection policy.

As I said, there is no stopping the production of garbage. Yet, even if people segregate their garbage, the city still does not have enough equipment to deal with the daily production. Sooner, rather than later, the garbage the city cannot deal with will have to pile up somewhere.

The reality, however, is that there are more people who are unwilling to segregate their garbage than those who do. So what happens then is that their unsegregated garbage will not get collected, prompting them to either burn their garbage or throw them at their neighbor's home.

So you see, instead of a purely environmental problem, the residents of Cebu City are now faced with two more -- health and peace and order. From the looks of it, things will get worse before they get any better.