QUEZON City Mayor Herbert Bautista said on Friday the city’s improved solid waste management and disposal system continues to be at the forefront of his administration’s advancing environmental consciousness and mitigating the impact of climate change.
During the observance of the Zero-Waste Month at the Quezon Memorial Circle, Bautista noted that solid waste management has been the center of the city’s environmental programs because of its serious garbage problem, further magnified by the Payatas trash slide in July 2000.
Bautista said Quezon City turned things around “by crafting environmentally sound and sustainable projects, anchored on building a resilient city and creating a clean environment through pollution control and waste management.”
The city government also engaged various stakeholders to increase the rate of the city’s wastes diversion. It also cemented the enforcement of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act as a discipline associated with the control of generation, storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing, and disposal of solid wastes, the mayor said.
Bautista said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Environmental Management Bureau chose Quezon City to host the Zero-Waste Month to gather leaders and practitioners in solid waste management, climate change, disaster risk prevention and mitigation, and renewable energy to heighten awareness on environmental protection, especially among millennials.
The national government has recognized the city’s effort to reduce its volume of garbage and to manage trash through the “reuse, reduce and recycle” method.
The Zero-Waste Month coincides with the 17th anniversary of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Various activities such as a bike run, Zumba sessions, a zero-waste fair, an eco-fashion show, exhibit and symposia, and an electronic concert, have highlighted the observance of Zero-Waste Month.