New garbage disposal plan for Bataan

MANILA, Philippines - The provincial government of Bataan is poised to adopt an environment-friendly Korean technology to solve the garbage problem while doing away with the expensive sanitary landfill project.

Rep. Enrique Garcia Jr. of Bataan’s second district told The STAR the trend nowadays is to do away with the more costly landfill and instead go for cheaper new technology in disposing garbage by turning it into pellets that would in turn be used as fuel for power plants.

This technology, Garcia said, is now widely adopted in South Korea and other Asian countries where garbage has become an acute problem due to fast growing population.

The technology is cheaper and more environment friendly because it is less polluting compared to other systems, especially those that use diesel fuel.

As planned by the provincial government, the Korean technology will be adopted by the province’s 11 municipalities and one city. The technology is being propagated through the Philippine Recycle Green Energy which has chosen the coastal town of Orion as pilot municipality.

The only kink, however, is that the owner of the land – a 10-hectare area in the upland barangay of Daang Pare, Orion town – where the plant is to be built had raised the price of the property, forcing the government to scout for an alternative site.

The site is reportedly accessible to roll on, roll off seacraft capable of transporting 200 metric tons of garbage per day.

Garcia explained that the local government is doing everything to make the project work for the good of the province.

He added that local executives were invited by investors/ proponents to study and to tour the successful garbage facilities in South Korea.