Council OKs P30M tipping fee for waste dumping

CEBU City Hall will run low on funds for the tipping fee for the dumping of garbage at a sanitary landfill in the town of Consolacion.

Landfill manager Engr. Randy Navarro said they asked for a P127-million budget for the whole year but the City Council only allocated P30 million.

Navarro said the amount can only cover the tipping fee being paid by the City to the privately-owned sanitary landfill in Barangay Polog, Consolacion until the second quarter of the year.

Navarro said the City pays P700 per ton of garbage dumped in Consolacion. In a day, he said the City dumps an average of 200 tons of garbage there.

This is over and above the P700 per ton that the City pays for the garbage it dumps to a privately-owned material recovery facility at Barangay Inayawan.

There, the City disposes of 100 tons of waste.

Because of this, Navarro said he plans to meet with Mayor Michael Rama to request for more funds through a supplemental budget.

Meanwhile, after many delays, the City Government’s Inayawan sanitary landfill will soon be totally closed.

Navarro told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday the P1.2-million closure plan for the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill is already being bid out by the City’s Bids and Awards Committee.

Those who will win the bidding, Navarro said, will formulate the closure plan for the Inayawan landfill.

The closure and rehabilitation of the landfill, having reached its full capacity, requires a closure plan as required by Republic Act (RA) 9003, otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. 

The closure plan will cover the assessment of the site, including characterizing the waste present at the landfill as well as a topographic survey, and water and soil sampling and laboratory analysis. 

It will also cover the preparation of a site development plan, leachate collection and treatment system design, and the gas collection and management system design.

Once the closure plan will be finished, Navarro said, the rehabilitation plan and activities for the landfill will start.