BAGUIO CITY The city government always prioritized short, medium and long-term solutions to the city’s garbage solid waste problems since the present administration assumed the leadership on June 30, 2010.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan cited the previous administration was not successful in the implementation of the appropriate interventions that could have solved the city’s garbage woes, thus, it was passed on to his administration prompting him to formulate the possible approaches that would prevent the proliferation of garbage on the city’s streets and barangays.
He said that when he took over as local chief executive in 2010, the hauling cost of garbage from the city to the Capas engineered sanitary landfill in Tarlac was around P3,400 per ton and the city was bringing out over 160 tons per day.
“We always prioritized appropriate solutions to our city’s solid waste management concern because it had placed us in a bad light previously and we do not want the same situation to happen during our watch. We will not stop looking for permanent solutions to the city’s garbage disposal problem for the benefit of the present and future generations,” Domogan stressed.
In order to compel residents to help in solving the city’s garbage problem then, the city government mandated households to segregate their garbage at source to help in significantly reducing the volume of garbage being hauled out of the city and lessen the government expenses on the hauling of waste to Tarlac.
Further, the city government purchased two Environmental Recycling System (ERS) machines that were used to convert some 48 tons of biodegradable waste to compost fertilizer and such machines are still operational to date contrary to false allegations by his critics that the multi-million peso units of equipment are no longer operational.
In fact, he added the city government is ready to sell the treated compost fertilizer to interested buyers by next month considering that a machine was installed to remove the plastic s that were included in the compost fertilizer produced by the ERS machines.
For the past six years, Domogan revealed the city government was able to purchase 12 brand new dump trucks and 2 compactors in order to improve the collection of garbage in the different barangays and prevent garbage from being scattered in streets and barangays that would again put the city in a bad light.
As one of the long-term solutions to the city’s garbage disposal woes, Domogan added the local government segregated some 50 hectares from the city-owned 139-hectare property in Sto. Tomas School area for public use where at least 12 hectares will be used for the put up of an integrated solid waste disposal facility, a combination of a temporary sanitary landfill, waste-to-energy facility, anaerobic digester, the operation of the ERS machines and a facility to cater to medical waste.
Because of the active participation of local residents to the segregation of garbage at source and the operation of the ERS coupled with the recycling of recyclable materials by waste segregators, he cited the volume of garbage being hauled out of the city dropped to 130 tons per day and still counting while the hauling cost was also significantly reduced to P1,432 per ton, assuring that more efforts are being done to eventually abandon hauling./Dexter A. See
