“The garbage heaps around us present opportunities—not a crisis.”
Local government units (LGUs) in Central Luzon and Northern Luzon are probably not aware of the best global practices in dealing with piles of trash. For them, landfills are simply the solutions to the mounting garbage problem in their districts.
The impending closure of the Kalangitan sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac province, by far the largest waste disposal facility in the two Luzon regions, recently grabbed newspaper headlines. Its shutdown on Oct. 5 raised fears of a massive garbage crisis.
Hospitals in the region joined the chorus of the so-called protests. Medical wastes from hundreds of hospitals, according to a group, would be left untreated once the government decided to shut down the sanitary landfill.
Clark Development Corp., a unit of state-run Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), is stopping the operations of the landfill once the 25-year contract with Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. expires. Extending the contract, even temporarily, would violate the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) Law.
BCDA quickly allayed the fears of the LGUs. It identified three operational facilities that can serve as alternatives to the 4,000-ton-a-day Kalangitan sanitary landfill.
“To those LGUs who use the Kalangitan [landfill], please do not worry as there are facilities where you can dispose of your garbage. We have three and a half months to arrange the transition from Kalangitan to these three facilities,” said BCDA chairman Delfin Lorenzana over a Net 25 interview.
The alternative landfills include a facility operated by Eco Protect Management Corp. with a daily capacity of 2,500 metric tons; a sanitary landfill managed by Florida Blanca Enviro Park Project Corp. (3,500 MT) per day; and a materials recovery facility by Prime Integrated Waste Solutions Inc., or PWS, (5,000 MT).
Japanese experience
The landfill tempest reminds me of an article published by UN News in April, in which Osaki town in southwest of Japan successfully dealt with its own garbage crisis.
Osaki’s landfill reached its capacity, with incinerator as the logical next step. The town, instead, decided to get serious about recycling.
Kasumi Fujita, a town councilor, committed to Osaki’s low waste policies and recounted what inspired her.
Ms. Fujita, according to the article published by the UN on its website, moved to Osaki in 2021 to work with the municipality, business sector and local community to help prepare the town for a more sustainable future. Today, Osaki, with a population of around 12,000, recycles 80 percent of its waste, and avoided building an incineration plant.
“I have always wanted to work for something related to the climate crisis, and strongly felt that I needed to act. That is why I came to Osaki. Here, waste is sorted into 27 different categories. Since there is no incineration plant, only blue bags go directly to the landfill without getting incinerated, while the other 26 categories are sorted and recycled properly,” said Ms. Fujita.
Plastics are separated into different types and then compressed. The compressed waste will then be taken to recycling factories across Japan, where they can be used as construction bricks, tiles and blocks.
Food waste, meanwhile, is collected three times a week with a blue bucket, UN News related. It is crushed into smaller pieces. Pruned plants will also be brought in here, and they are mixed together with the food waste. The pruned plants contain many native micro-organisms. As they decompose, the waste turns into a rich compost, almost all which is used on Osaki’s farms.
“I think the process is very simple and can be practiced anywhere in the world. In fact, our process has been introduced to Indonesia: Osaki Town officials and the recycling center staff went there to demonstrate our techniques for separating and composting food waste. This may become a solution to a problem that many developing nations face right now,” said Ms. Fujita.
“I really feel people should learn more about the process of what happens to products after we use them, and how complex the issue of waste is. At the same time, they will realize that we can reduce waste. Businesses and local governments also need to understand the situation. We have to mobilize everyone to make a difference.”
Waste segregation
The Philippines is taking a page from Osaki’s decision to drop the incineration option.
Prime Integrated Waste’s offer to address the garbage problem in Central Lauzon and Northern Luzon is climate-friendly.
It inaugurated in January this year an automated materials recovery facility (MRF) in Cebu that uses state-of-the-art equipment for waste segregation and storage—a first in the Philippines.
PWS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. of the Razon Group, was established in response to the increasing demand for proper waste management and resource recovery solutions in industrialized and fast-growing cities in the Philippines.
Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga is backing the initiative of PWS.
“It’s efforts like this that make our job possible… The first thing we need to do in this country is regard the solid waste management sector as an industry…. Investments will not make sense without all the moving parts put on the table and that includes local governance, environmental management; that includes private investment with government and aligned with government in addressing these particular issues,” she said.
A circular economy is about reducing waste to a minimum and recycling materials to maximize their value. The garbage heaps around us present opportunities—not a crisis.
E-mail: rayenano@yahoo.com or extrastory2000@gmail.com