Monday, November 26, 2007 Council to mull on waste system project By Danilo V. Adorador III
CAGAYAN de Oro's City Council will hear a proposal for a private sector-led waste management system amid growing concerns over the burgeoning garbage problem.
Dr. Juergen Lorenz, managing director of JL Business & Technology Consultancy, is set to present in Monday’s council session his firm's offer for a joint operation of an integrated waste management facility under a Build Operate and Own (BOO) arrangement.
Similar proposals, however, have been made each year.
Dr. Lorenz's presentation today will be his second, having put forward his first in 2006 during the previous administration.
At least two proposals from different companies have not been acted since 2005.
In 2004, the Emano administration broached a plan to construct an incinerator plant for both ordinary and medical wastes in a far-flung barangay.
That plan never materialized. The city has yet to comply with the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, which mandates local government units (LGUs) to establish an integrated solid waste management program.
Although the city has partially established a waste segregation program in barangays, it has yet to construct its own integrated material recovery facility (MRF)--a key provision under RA 9003.
Juergenz, in his previous presentation, proposed a holistic waste management system integrating recycling, waste reduction and livelihood. His company is partner of the globally-known Rethmann Recycling, which operates an MRF in Manila.
Cagayan de Oro disposes solid wastes three times bigger than what its population is supposed to produce, a Mindanao Polytechnic State College (MPSC) 2002 research says.
The study projects that the "magnitude of disposed garbage" in the city would double in about nine years--its existing landfill totally full in 12 years.
But the economic potentials for recycling is high, says the Periurban Vegetable Project (PUVeP), a research and outreach arm of the Xavier University College of Agriculture.
According to PUVeP: "The composition of the solid waste delivered to the Cagayan de Oro landfill site reveals that about 40 to 50 % of its fraction is bio-degradable and, hence, has the potential to be converted into organic fertilizer if appropriate technologies are available. Further 20 to 30 % of the solid waste are potential products for the recycle industry."
Other revenue potentials from dumped wastes have been presented to the City Hall.
Last September, the Cebu-based Philippine Bio Sciences Company, Incorporated (Phil-Bio) proposed the put up a waste-to-energy power plant at the Upper Carmen landfill out of the methane gas and other organic wastes from the area.
All these proposals, however, are still under considerations by the City Government.
That decision will determine whether Cagayan de Oro remain in the list of urbanized cities still beating the deadline for the closure of all open and controlled dumps in the country.
The statute took effect on February 16 last year. Public officials can be sued for violating the law.
