The Cebu City Council approved a plan by Councilor Joel Garganera to inspect prospective waste disposal facilities and assess their safety and capacity before the next garbage bidding process.
Cebu City currently pays about P3,906 per ton to haul garbage to Aloguinsan following a January 8 slope collapse at the Binaliw landfill operated by Prime Waste Solutions Cebu Inc.
The city generates 600 to 700 metric tons of daily garbage while the Binaliw landfill is restricted to accepting only 500 metric tons per day under conditions set by the DENR-EMB.
CEBU City officials want to make sure prospective waste disposal sites are safe and ready before choosing where to send the city’s trash next. The Cebu City Council has approved a plan to inspect prospective waste disposal facilities to evaluate their safety, environmental safeguards, and daily capacity before starting the next bidding process.
The city currently pays around P3,906 per ton to haul its garbage to a facility in the Municipality of Aloguinsan. This long-distance hauling started after a Jan. 8 slope collapse at the Binaliw landfill—operated by Prime Waste Solutions Cebu Inc. (PWS)—killed 36 workers and one volunteer rescuer.
Inspecting Facilities and Assessing Capacity
The approved resolution, written by City Councilor Joel Garganera, requires any facility willing to take Cebu City’s solid waste to undergo a complete assessment. Inspectors will check the facility's overall capacity, infrastructure, safety measures, environmental safeguards, waste-handling processes, and necessary legal permits.
To review these details, the Council has scheduled an executive session on Sept. 8. Key agencies invited include:
Prime Waste Solutions Cebu Inc. (PWS)
Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office
Office of the Building Official
Cebu City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office
Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB)
This session will focus on inspection findings and look at how PWS can safely operate while ongoing rehabilitation at the Binaliw landfill continues.
Bridging the daily garbage gap
Although the DENR-EMB has fully lifted its cease-and-desist order on PWS, strict conditions remain. Under the order, the landfill’s toe cell and interim cell areas can only accept up to 500 metric tons of residual waste per day while slope stabilization and monitoring efforts continue.
However, Cebu City generates an estimated 600 to 700 metric tons of garbage every day. Because of this gap, Binaliw cannot currently take all of the city's waste.
Kenneth Siasar, chief of staff for Mayor Nestor Archival, noted that the city has moved its temporary transfer operation from the South Road Properties to the former Cebu City Quarantine Center (CCQC) area in the North Reclamation area. At this station, small collection trucks move garbage into larger dump trucks to be hauled to Aloguinsan. Siasar emphasized that the city works to clear the site by early morning to minimize how long trash stays on the concrete.
The city hopes PWS will join the upcoming procurement process after missing three prior bidding attempts due to concerns surrounding the previous partial lifting of the cease-and-desist order.
“Manghinaut ta nga sa hingtundan nga kompanya nga, again, inag-bidding nato mo-apil na sila,” Siasar said. (We hope that the company we’ve been waiting for will, again, participate in the bidding.)
Protecting neighboring communities
Councilor Garganera’s resolution highlights that solving Cebu City's garbage problems must not create risks for other towns. The inspection team will look at potential impacts on host local government units, local residents, and the surrounding environment to ensure trash issues are not simply passed off to smaller communities.
The results of the upcoming site inspections and the Sept. 8 executive session will help guide the City Council’s final decision, ensuring the selected waste facility balances the city's operational needs with community safety and environmental protection./CAV