From Waste to Energy for Free and with Profit, Why Not!
VOL. XVIII NO. 3 (October 25-31, 2014)
I’m not stupid enough to commit the same mistake.
This as Mayor Tabanda clarified a proposal of a waste to energy facility of a company form Australia.
The G20 of Austaralia with an office in Singapore and is operating internationally has proposed a waste to energy facility to be installed in Alno, La Trinidad. It has with it a dryer and a conveyor for segregating garbage that are being collected within the municipality.
“This is not like the Black Hole as some constituents in the council presumed. The engineered sanitary landfill in Alno, under the law, should not had been utilized with a mixed garbage instead it should had been utilized with residual waste under R.A 9001 or the recycle, reduce, reuse law to minimize the waste collected but the landfill was not used to what it should had been,” said Mayor Tabanda.
The Asian Development Bank has piloted La Trinidad, Benguet in solid waste management from training, management, and facility. “Earlier, the Black Hole in Alno, La Trinidad was not sustained. Garbage that were put in the Black Hole were not segregated that it has caused the machine to collapsed and bugged down. They even borrowed money to buy the machine that did not passed the testing of the Department of Science and Technology. Now, the Benguet Bank has sued the municipal office for the non-payment of the money borrowed and a case is now in court. The Black Hole is just standing there as a scrap metal,” said Mayor Tabanda.
Mayor Tabanda said that seven conditions were set by the Asian Development Bank that the municipality has to comply with. “There are cracks at the dumpsite so that we have to haul our garbage out of the site so as not for Sablan and Tublay would eventually experience a trash slide and then them suing as to court, “she added.
The Asian Development Bank with the investors of the waste to energy, the G20, introduced and presented schemes on the waste to energy proposal in the municipality.
“The financial is the company’s. There will be no cashing out from the municipality’s funds. Profits will be shared between the company and the municipality while it sells the energy produced by the facility to BENECO and to the grid corporation,” explained Mayor Tabanda.
The G20’s prototype machine is now in Santa Cruz, Bulacan that is being tested by the Department of Energy, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Science and Technology. “We went to Bulacan for three times already together with the technical committee, the Benguet State University, barangay officials, and some media,” said Mayor Tabanda.
The project is a public private partnership the company shoulders the finances. The municipal council is just waiting for the final report to be handed over by Mr. David Coupland of the company.
“It’s okey. It is just that some media and members of the council did not understand much of the proposal prior and before. But councilors Botiwey and Quintos who are in charge of environmental matters were able to digest it when we talked of it over. Still, some media organizations were misquoting the council as against and are denial of the proposal but were just actually not. Instead, they just wanted clarifications of the company’s Security and Exchange Commission’s documents and registration.
The G20 Company is requesting the Sangguniang Bayan for a pre-memorandum of understanding for them to process the papers pursuant to renewable energy and the SEC’s requirement since G20 company cannot go into preliminaries without a MOA that acts as a binder of the agreement.
“We like the proposal because aside from it having no cash out from the municipality, the risk of the facility malfunctioning and bugging down is the company’s,” said Mayor Tabanda. The facility with its test going on under the aforementioned government agencies is not like the Black Hole that have not undergone test and wasw hidden from the public’s eye for the cost of thirty million pesos and was only utilized for six months. The amount that was supposed to be used as payment to the bank was gotten by former Mayor Abalos and did not go to the office neither the money having a receipt.
The G20 company’s facility have no negatives from DOST and BENECO. ”We will not spend huge amount of money in hauling for our garbage. Once the MOA wi;; be accepted, terms and conditions concerning public private partnership will be established. We will wait for the final test result from Bulacan and its profile,” said Mayor Tabanda.
The ADB invited the company not only as internationally operating but cost benefitting of its mission to operate and sell energy produced by the facility. “We want to expedite the talks and the process but for now, we have to fast tack the hauling of our garbage,” said Mayor Tabanda.
The project is expected to commence this November or so once everything is settled./ Ezequiel Banas-e/The Junction News
