LA TRINIDAD Mayor Romeo Salda said the expanded Alno Engineered Sanitary Landfill is on the brink of overflowing and is estimated to be full by the end of the year.
Salda said the original three-year lifespan of the residual waste facility is nearly filled, seven months since the municipality started using it and blames lack of waste segregation as the culprit.
“It may only last for one year and five months,” Salda said.
In February, the municipality opened the 4,000-square meter Alno site 3 to temporarily address the garbage problem in the valley using the P3M incentive received from the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Seal of Good Governance.
“Nagkurang kami siguro ti own segregation ta nakita me adu ti plastic, residual waste lang kuma ti ad idjay,” [“We lack segregation because there arew many plastics mixed with the residual waste.”] Salda said.
Councilor Nestor Fongwan Jr., committee chairperson for natural resources and environmental protection and solid waste management, shared the dismay of the mayor in the lack of waste management in the town.
Fongwan said the facility should only cater to vegetable trimmings but it is obvious there are sacks, baskets including plastics, and other unnecessary waste in the area.
Segregation at source in La Trinidad trading post should be implemented, added the councilor.
Fongwan also questioned the job orders assigned at the trading post if they segregating the waste.
The lawmaker added a meeting with the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources (Menro) showed an impasse in duties.
“I was advised by Menro that we have personnel’s who are assigned at the dumping area at the trading post and it is so obvious that they are not doing their job because it is not being segregated,” said Fongwan.
Menro Officer Arthur Pedro reported an average of five trucks of garbage are collected everyday from La Trinidad trading post.
“We have two situations here, if we based our attention on the present, we have no problem but, in reality we really have some issues so I hope we can be honest enough to do something about it,” Fongwan said.
At the Alno dumpsite, at least 3,800 square meters were allotted for the ongoing expansion of Cell 3, which is being readied for the second quarter of 2018, needing an additional P15-million funding for its completion.
Salda said they would still need to appropriate funds for 2018 to finish the expansion.