Tagbilaran City closes dumpsite

CEBU, Philippines - The Tagbilaran City government officially closed last week its 2.6-hectare open dumpsite at Barangay Dampas, in compliance with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Law.

As such, it is now implementing the waste segregation policy, and the City Solid Waste Management Office, according to its head Lito Taladua, said it will no longer collect biodegradable waste materials from households starting this week.

Garbage collectors will only collect residual wastes such as sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, styropors, soiled tissue papers, sachets and candy wrappers—the only waste materials that will be accepted at the Alburquerque Cluster Sanitary Landfill (ACSLF).

Biodegradables like left-over food will no longer be collected, and Taladua advised households to properly place all this kind of wastes in a compost pit, and practice segregation of garbage to reduce volume of waste for collection and disposal.

Garbage collectors will not also collect recyclable wastes—newspapers, bottles and tin cans. “Each household should bring these reusable items to the junk shops or else violators will be fined, ranging from P300 to P3,000,” he said.

The closed Dampas dump, which was the site for at least 50 tons of garbage daily from the city’s 105,051 households, is now being rehabilitated to stop it from being a health hazard to the residents in the area.

Taladua said it will be converted into an environmentally sound solid waste management facility, with the construction of an administration building, a bio-composting and final sorting facilities to ensure segregation, collection, transport, storage, treatment and disposal of solid wastes.

The Bohol Environmental Management Office (BEMO) earlier estimated that 9,452 kilograms of wastes are generated daily and, this time, these will be disposed at the ACSLF, 17 kilometers from Tagbilaran.

The city government will be spending more than P12,000 a week after the ACSLF Cluster Board, headed by Alburquerque Mayor Efren Tungol, agreed to peg the disposal or tipping fee at P1,300 per ton. (FREEMAN)