REPUBLIC Act (RA) 9003, also known as Solid Waste Management Act, has made recycling as among the programs being pushed and encouraged by this law to reduce the volume of waste for disposal while providing people livelihood.
Under RA 9003, solid waste management is defined as “the discipline associated with the control of generation, storage, collection, transfer and transport, processing, and disposal of solid wastes in a manner that is in accord with the best principles of public health, economics, engineering, conservation, aesthetics, and other environmental considerations, and that is also responsive to public attitudes.”
For this purpose, the law requires that Material Recovery Facility (MRF) or solid waste recovery facility “shall be established in a barangay-owned or -leased land or any suitable open space to be determined by the barangay through its Sanggunian.”
The main function of the MRF, therefore, is to maximize the quantity of recyclables processed, while producing materials that will generate the highest possible revenues in the market under a continued healthful environment.
What is important to remember, however, is that one could not just put up an MRF on any land. It has to follow some location criteria such as being close to existing road, not near schools, hospitals, park and residential areas, and not on sloping and flood prone areas.
Such being the case, why then is Greenhills Subdivision in Casuntingan, Mandaue City allowed to operate its own MRF when it is in blatant violation of all the location criteria mentioned and more?
It is bad enough that the subdivision’s MRF is located a stone’s throw away from the nearest homeowner’s house or that it is on a flood prone area located near the edge of a slope going down the Butuanon River, but what is even worse is that the MRF itself has deprived the homeowners of a playground, an amenity that the developers provided for kids to have a safe place for playing growing up.
And we are not even talking yet about the obnoxious smell that the MRF generates and blown wherever the wind is blowing!
What is also adding to the homeowners woes about the existence of the MRF inside the subdivision is the fear that the leachate generated may contaminate the groundwater which we all know is the source of water for aquifers, springs, and wells.
Greenhills subdivision is endowed with a steady supply of good water from its deepwell which the homeowners have been dependent upon for well over 35 years now.
I know this because I live in Greenhills Subdivision and all I want is for the proper authorities to look into this matter.