THE Bacolod City Council approved a resolution requesting the City Mayor’s Office through the Permits and Licensing Division to hold all issuances of business permits for junk shop establishments pending the conduct of inspection and tagging of all junk shop establishments.
The resolution was authored by Councilor Carlos Jose Lopez, chairperson of the City Council committee on environment.
Lopez said the Committee on Environment and Ecology is currently formulating a project entitled “Information, Education, Communication, (IEC) Campaign to reinforce the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Policy on “no segregation, no collection for Bacolod City.
“There is a need to get an inventory of all junk shop operators operating with a business permit and inspect those operating without a permit,” he said.
Lopez added that according to Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, local government units are mandated to ensure the 100 percent collection efficiency within their area of responsibility from residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural sources.
“In order to achieve the 100 percent solid waste collection efficiency, it is proposed that all junk shops be registered (any type) to the city accordingly. Junk shops place a big role in solid waste management as substitution for the absence of the materials recovery facility (MRF) and contact persons for the recycling facilities; or those who want to sell their recyclable trash,” Lopez said.
He said that in case of the unavailability of the MRF in the village, the barangay may partner with the junk shop operators through a joint–undertaking or memorandum of agreement. (MAP)