CEBU City is moving toward a new way of handling its waste after a major landfill decided to cut the amount of trash it accepts. The city must now find a home for hundreds of tons of garbage every single day to avoid a mounting crisis.
Trash deficit
Mayor Nestor Archival confirmed that Cebu City will now limit its daily trash shipments to Consolacion to just 150 metric tons. This is a 50 percent drop from the 300 tons the city used to send there.
The change comes after Consolacion Mayor Teresa “Nene” Alegado decided to protect her town’s landfill. She wants to make sure there is enough space left for her own community's needs.
“That is their decision, and we respect that. We will find other ways to manage our garbage,” Mayor Archival said.
The 450-ton problem
The situation is a difficult math problem for the city. Cebu City creates about 600 tons of trash every day. With Consolacion only taking 150 tons, the city is left with 450 tons of waste that has nowhere to go.
To fix this, the city is looking at "at-source" processing. This means dealing with the trash right where it is made instead of hauling it away.
For example, the Carbon Public Market is already doing this. Every day, about 15 to 20 tons of food waste are turned into compost instead of being sent to a landfill.
The gameplan
To meet the new limits, the city is focusing on three main goals:
Mandatory Sorting: Families must separate their trash so organic waste can be turned into fertilizer for farming.
Local Shredding: New machines will be used in neighborhoods to process non-biodegradable materials.
Less Hauling: Only the items that cannot be recycled or composted will be sent to expensive landfills.
Mayor Archival is meeting with barangay leaders this week to discuss how to enforce these new rules. He warned that the plan will only work if households cooperate and sort their trash at home.
System under pressure
The city’s trash problems got worse on January 8, when the Binaliw landfill collapsed. That disaster forced the city to use the more expensive Consolacion site, which is now restricting access.
While the situation is urgent, city leaders believe this is a chance to build a more sustainable future. By focusing on recycling and composting locally, Cebu City hopes to finally end its reliance on outside landfills and manage its own waste more responsibly.