The Quezon City Environment Protection and Waste Management Department has invited more than 700 recyclers for a solid waste and management forum under the “Zero Litter in QC Project.”
The forum is scheduled to run until Aug.11 and will be held at Bulwagang Amoranto, Quezon City Hall.
According to Remelito Hirang, chief of the EPWMD monitoring, inspection and enforcement section, records show there are more than 700 junk shops in Quezon City, and only 80 of them have registered their business.
In the solid waste management forum held on Tuesday, the EPWMD recognized the role of the formal and informal sector recyclers in the overall waste reduction and diversion effort of the city.
The forum aims to enable the recyclers to proactively participate in the environmental management policies, programs and projects as well as with the social facet of local administration.
Apart from their role in waste management, the recyclers also learned about City Ordinance No. 2350-2014 also known as “The Quezon City Environment Code.”
“We will organize, empower, and teach them on how to operate, especially on the health and sanitation aspects. We will support them fully,” Hirang said.
The city government, in a private-public partnership scheme, is also planning to build a recycling facility where all wastes collected by all junk shops will be recycled.
Recycling became even more important for the city as on Friday, a high-ranking Quezon City official said the Payatas dump is already nearing its limit.
City administrator Aldrin Cuña said, the city government is now preparing for the eventual closure of the Payatas landfill by the end of 2017 to save lives.
“We are preparing for its closure this year, but the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has to decide where we will dump our waste. As of now, there is still no designated area,” he added.
The EPWMD, headed by Frederika Rentoy, requested the MMDA to reopen the Payatas sanitary landfill after ordering a temporary closure on July 27. The closure was brought about by the continuous rains.
The MMDA also instructed the EPWMD to suspend the operations of the Payatas dump. Rentoy said the heavy rains made the access roads in the landfill muddy and slippery, making it difficult for garbage trucks to safely maneuver.
During the dump’s closure, the city’s collected garbage was diverted to two sanitary landfills —District 1, 3 and 4’s wastes to Vitas, Tondo in Manila, and Districts 2, 5 and 6’s to Rodriguez, Rizal.
“The collection of Vitas takes five to eight hours before the truck could get back [to Payatas]. There is really a delay in the collection. Despite having a shorter turnaround time in Rodriguez, there are requirements, such as tickets, that must be met before our trucks could be allowed to enter,” Rentoy said.
Rentoy said they are just waiting for the go-signal of the MMDA to be able to resume the Payatas operation.
If approved, the Payatas landfill will have a gradual reopening, wherein only barangay-contracted trucks and independent haulers shall be allowed to dump in the landfill.
“The purpose on why we are requesting for the reopening is to enable us to clean and to address the accumulation backlog,” Rentoy said.
Former environment secretary Gina Lopez wanted to order the dump’s closure because of its proximity to the La Mesa watershed, one the main sources of potable water in Metro Manila. The landfill is an engineered landfill exclusively for the waste of Quezon City.
At least 2,800 metric tons of garbage a day are being collected and dumped at the Payatas landfill.
On July 10, 2000, over 300 people were buried alive when a mountain of garbage collapsed in Payatas.