Garbage system project turned off

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – Mayor Greg Abalos clarified the Blackhole project in Alno has temporarily been turned off pending a visit from Japanese officials next week.

Abalos said Japanese officials are set to visit the municipality to check on the technology. “They advised us to turn it off in the meantime.”

Policemen are now detailed at the Alno garbage dump, preventing the public from entering the Blackhole project site.

Only dump trucks from the municipality are allowed entry on site according to policeman Thursday morning when a media team tried to enter.

Abalos said the project has been closed to viewing to prevent onlookers from misinterpreting the halt in operations of the machine.

The mayor said since February the municipality has tried to operate the machine but differences in garbage volume in Japan, where it originated and the Valley has been the main culprits in its stop in operations.

The return of the Japanese officials to the municipality will become a chance to assess the technology and to train personnel to use it properly.

Abalos further stressed the machine has not been acquired fully, dispelling reports it is now owned by the municipality.

Only a P23-million down payment has been made for the technology via loans from both the Cooperative Bank of Benguet and its CBB Corporation Foundation.

Both entities have filed complaints of non collection over unpaid loans as Abalos and the entire legislative body of the Valley now faces a civil suit.

Abalos said the matters will be answered in the courts, as well as when the Japanese officials arrive.

The Blackhole machine can supposedly decompose 10 tons of garbage in 20 hours without using electricity or fuel and it comes with eco composting receptacles called “magical buckets” to all the barangays in the Valley.

The machine uses plasma technology and sans incineration, which is illegal, “I am inclined to believe it will work,” Abalos said.