BONTOC town is looking to put to rest their garbage problems using technology.
The province capital is planning to expand local solid waste management programs in a bid to sustain targets in reducing the garbage collection.
Arthur Odsey, executive assistant to Bontoc mayor Franklin Odsey, the LGU has been slowly adopting modern approaches in providing suitable solutions in the past few years.
Odsey explained the Department of Science and Technology with the help of other government agencies has provided the LGU with innovative processing equipment which has been the tool for minimizing the solid waste of the municipality.
"We are glad to have partnered and gained support from the DOST which helped us in obtaining machineries in helping us process non-biodegradable materials. The Environmental Management Bureau has also been a great help providing the ideas on how to solve our garbage problem there." Odsey told Sun.Star Baguio.
Odsey said the LGU will be launching programs to reprocess recyclable materials collected and at the same time involve the local community.
"So far we've had many of our programs running in almost all barangays in the municipality which involves proper observation of segregating biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes," Odsey said.
According to Odsey amongst the programs greatly adopted and implemented was the reprocessing of plastic bottles, which were crushed and soon mixed with other materials and soon turned into bricks.
The municipal official explained the bricks are then used within various projects of the community, which according to him allows contributory part in the community.
"The collection and segregation starts within communities after which the recyclables are processed with the help and employment of our inmates in the municipal jail through the management of our senior citizens organization, after which the LGU either buy the processed materials and the cycle all goes around as we see," he explained.
Apart from recycling and/or reprocessing, Odsey emphasized residents have been active in their part with voluntary groups, such as the "Green Patrol" guarantying the strict implementation of waste segregation while local schools are also encouraged where the LGU bid off monetary assistance through the "Pera sa Basura Program" a contest for the most plastic waste collected in a semi-annual timeframe.
Odsey added Bontoc will again become beneficiaries of the DOST next month for additional equipment after the LGU sustained improvement in their cause.
"This is just amongst the simple solutions which we see as possible answers to complying with the environmental standards, perhaps as we go along we will come up with a long-term plan which can aid the municipality as we all know we cannot afford the hauling of garbage to other places." Odsey added.
Meanwhile, he said the LGU has been maintaining small scale dumps which function as controlled compost site for biodegradable wastes.
In 2013, Bontoc approved a compromise settlement with the neighboring province of Kalinga for the closure of Callutit Dumpsite which is located on a mountainside towards the Chico River.
The environmental case filed by the non-government organization Kalinga Anti-pollution Action Group stated the poor management of the dumpsite has been polluting the Chico River that straddles Mt. Province and Kalinga and drains to the Cagayan River.