Trucks found dumping medical waste at Lara

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- Garbage trucks have been barred from entering the Spectrum Blue Steel Corporation (SBSC) Biosphere facility in Barangay Lara here after a government-owned compactor truck was found dumping medical waste at the waste-to-energy plant.

Sun.Star Pampanga learned about this Sunday from an official of True Green Energy Group (TGEG), which runs the facility, as efforts to identify the operator of the truck and the source of the medical waste continue.

In a report furnished to Sun.Star Pampanga, TGEG Corporate Relations Assistant Manager Raquel Rivera identified the compactor truck as bearing plate number SJR 680. It reportedly dumped medical waste at the facility on two occasions.

The report narrated that “around 9 p.m., August 2, 2012, the SBSC Plant supervisor reported that hospital waste was dumped inside the facility by a compactor garbage truck [SJR 680] about 8:30 in the evening. The supervisor on duty mentioned that the pile created a pungent odor which is intolerable. He instructed the sorters to stop all activities near the unloaded pile.”

The second dumping, the report noted, occurred on August 3, 2012, Friday, when “the same garbage compactor truck was observed by the shift supervisor to have dumped another pile of hospital waste inside the facility. The supervisor then reported the incident to the operations manager. The pile of medical waste was then moved away from the sorting area to protect the workers on the ground from potential exposure to infectious wastes.”

Rivera also stated in the report that on Saturday, August 4, 2012, the same garbage compactor truck “was barred entry into the facility as instructed by the plant management. Such decision was made to prevent the same truck from dumping its load of suspected medical wastes.”

She added that the incidents were discussed with the company’s top management team on Monday, August 6, 2012.

“The management board decided to suspend the entry of incoming trucks and temporarily stop the operations of the plant to ensure that its workers are prevented from further exposure to medical waste. The temporary suspension of activities is still in effect until there is a clear resolution that all medical wastes are cleared from the site and that there are no legal liabilities on the part of SBSC,” Rivera said in the report.