THE first sanitary landfill in the far north of Cebu will be completed next year and will help not just its host city but also neighboring towns with their garbage disposal needs.
The news was welcomed by ocean conservation group Oceana Philippines, which said the move helps to limit the volume of garbage that ends up in the ocean, as well as proves that local government units (LGUs) have the capacity to set up their own sanitary landfill.
The City of Bogo officially broke ground Monday, July 24, 2023, for the construction of a 7.2-hectare sanitary landfill facility worth P150 million, expected to be fully operational by early January 2024.
The project is funded by the City Government of Bogo.
Engineer Wenceslao Cañete Jr., head of the City Environment and Natural Resources (Cenro), told SunStar Cebu Monday that although the groundbreaking ceremony was held only on that day, the facility had been under construction since March and was now 30 percent complete.
The sanitary landfill is located in Barangay La Paz.
Life span
Cañete said the construction of the facility will take 390 days to complete. The facility will have a life span of 20 years once it becomes operational.
Cañete explained that the facility will be integrated, consisting of a composting facility, material recovery facility, hazardous waste storage with a High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE) liner, and a wastewater treatment facility.
He said this facility is the first sanitary landfill in Cebu’s far north.
According to Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, composting refers to the controlled decomposition of organic matter by micro-organisms, mainly bacteria and fungi, into a humus-like product.
The law also says that a material recovery facility includes a solid waste transfer station or sorting station, drop-off center, a composting facility and a recycling facility, while hazardous wastes storage refers to the interim containment of a combination of solid waste which has chemical or infectious characteristics.
Neighbors
Cañete said the sanitary landfill can accommodate over 100 metric tons of waste, adding that the city itself generates only 12 to 15 metric tons of mixed waste daily.
He said the City intends to make its facility available to neighboring towns.
He explained that previously, the City disposed of its waste at a sanitary landfill in the town of Consolacion operated by Asian Energy Systems Corp., after closing its own dumpsite in 2016.
Regarding the tipping fee, Cañete said the City still needs to meet to determine a reasonable fee.
Advantageous
He elaborated that having its own sanitary landfill would be advantageous for the city in northeastern Cebu, as it would no longer have to transport its waste elsewhere for proper disposal.
He added that having its own landfill would also generate jobs for its own constituents.
He explained that the construction of the sanitary landfill in Bogo City is in accordance with RA 9003, which requires every LGU to provide its own systematic and comprehensive ecological waste management program to ensure the protection of public health and the environment.
Oceana
Rose-Liza Eisma-Osorio, acting vice president of Oceana Philippines, said the sanitary landfill could contribute to minimizing the problem of the alarming amount of waste from land that ends up in the oceans due to leakage of open dumpsites.
“We laud their initiative if this really is in accordance with criteria set by the policies and the law for setting up or establishing a sanitary landfill. After all, [it is a] very laudable initiative that shows that LGUs can set up their own sanitary landfill, and in fact this could help address the problem of marine plastics or those plastics that end up in the ocean,” Osorio, an environmental lawyer and law professor, told SunStar Cebu on Wednesday, July 26.
Section 37 of RA 9003 prohibits the operation of open dumpsites.
However, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), 233 open dumpsites were still operating in the country as of January 2021 versus only 189 sanitary landfills.
Unlike an open dumpsite where solid waste is indiscriminately thrown without due planning and consideration for environmental and health standards, a sanitary landfill is a waste disposal site designed, built, operated and maintained in a way that exerts engineering control over potential impacts arising from the facility’s development and operation, according to the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB).
Last June 6, Osorio told SunStar Cebu that a major source of leaked garbage after collection is open dumpsites which are typically located near waterways.
According to Osorio, around the world, there are around 14 million tons of plastic added to the plastic waste in the oceans every year, with the Philippines contributing around 0.25 to 0.75 metric tons of these marine plastics every year.
Requirements
A sanitary landfill must obtain an environmental compliance certificate (ECC) from the EMB 7, which is an attached agency of the DENR that sets the appropriate environmental quality standards.
In a document published on May 9, 2019 by the municipal government of Santol in La Union for its application for ECC for its sanitary landfill, the EMB listed down the requirements as including the following:
Submission of a Geological/Geo-hazard Site Assessment Report;
Construction of an adequate and appropriate drainage system and soil erosion outros including other structural measures that will conform to the natural topography;
Provision by the proponent of an effective wastewater/leachate treatment facility such that all liquid wastes in the sanitary landfill shall conform to the standards of water quality;
Installation of clay or appropriate liner with appropriate dimensions to limit leachate migration into the subsoil and protect groundwater from contamination.
Construction of appropriately designed monitoring wells that will allow effective monitoring of the groundwater at the project to monitor the groundwater quality and methane gas;
Putting up of adequate fencing to prevent undue scattering of wastes;
Ensuring by the proponent of the implementation of measures to eradicate rats, flies and other vermin, and to minimize foul odor at the site and during waste transport.
Lawful
The Bogo City Public Information Office (PIO) assured SunStar Cebu on Thursday, July 27, that during the planning of the sanitary landfill, the City got the stamp of approval from the DENR 7 and the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Office.
They said the project received an ECC from the EMB 7 and that Cenro head Cañete personally submits a status update report weekly to the EMB 7 office in Barangay Banilad, Mandaue City to ensure the continued lawful construction of the sanitary landfill.
Osorio hopes more towns and cities will set up their own sanitary landfills.
Minimization
She also urged Bogo City to go beyond setting up a sanitary landfill in addressing the waste management problem.
“With good solid waste management programs, such as setting up landfills, but it should also be coupled with responsible waste avoidance and minimization in all aspects of waste management [including] reduce, reuse, and recycle,” Osorio said.
For instance, Osorio said, the country’s efforts to eliminate the use of single-use plastics, which contribute largely to the solid waste that the country produces, is not given much effort.
She said the best way to end the problem of micro-plastics, which pose health risks to humans, is to completely stop the use of plastics.
The City PIO said there is an ordinance that aims to minimize the waste they produce by introducing the recycling of containers and not using single plastics in market transactions, but they admitted that they are having a hard time implementing it in micro, small and medium enterprises or MSMEs.
However, they underscored their enforcement of the ordinance, saying that recently a small-scale coffee chain that sells a cup of coffee for P39 was penalized for using plastic bags in its business. They did not specify what the penalty was.
So far, they said, large enterprises, such as fast food restaurants located in the city, have fully adopted the ordinance and use brown paper instead of plastic bags.