MBTF: Garbage problem seen to end soon

By March 6, 2017Headlines, News

THE worst is not over but things can be better.

This was how Dagupan City Mayor Belen Fernandez assessed the garbage disposal problem in the city since its 50-year-old open dumpsite was ordered closed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources last month.

While Fernandez lamented that many households are still not consistent in segregating their waste materials as prescribed by law, she remains optimistic that the city will still manage to avoid a garbage crisis.

In a talk to newsmen, the mayor said she believes the officials of the 31 barangays in the city will be able to impose the discipline on more households in the days ahead.

“We are gaining headway in persuading households in segregating their wastes since that is the call of the times.”, the mayor said.

The mayor said the City Waste Management Division (CWMD) continues to collect segregated wastes from the barangays.

She said the plastics are being compressed while the food wastes are being fed to the city’s bio digester for composting into fertilizers to be distributed to the city’s schools for their vegetable gardens.

With the expected arrival of a binding machine ordered by the city, more plastics can be compressed and compacted initially for delivery to the landfill in Urdaneta and eventually to the planned waste-to-energy (W2E) facility for conversion into diesel fuel, the mayor said.

She said negotiations with Urdaneta City Mayor Amadeo Perez IV have already started for the use of the Urdaneta sanitary landfill for the city’s segregated wastes while the process for the completion of the W2E project.

So far, she confirmed that only one company whom she did not name, has expressed interest to build the W2E facility at its own expense.

While the technical working committee has already recommended the acceptance of the company’s offer, she said the city government will continue to be open to receive bids from other interested parties.

Fernandez also clarified that the closed dumpsite was already the subject of closure by DENR in 2006 but the past city administration worked for its delay by building mini-dumpsites in Barangays Tambac and Bonuan Boquig while bringing the dried wastes to landfill a farmland in San Jacinto, for which the city spent more than P5 million.

“We cannot pursue the same scheme because these are illegal,” Fernandez said. (Leonardo Micua)

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