After savoring my street-side tempura in a bustling mid-week afternoon, I found myself wandering, with the plastic cup and stick in hand, on a mission to find a trash bin that didn’t seem to exist in the sidewalks.
Strolling through many of Cebu City’s streets, especially in commercial areas and public spaces, one will quickly notice a common sight, or rather, the lack thereof. The scarcity of public garbage bins. When proper disposal options are lacking, citizens are left with no choice but to resort to littering or holding on to their trash far longer than necessary.
The lack of garbage bins in Cebu City raises significant legal, environmental, and public health concerns. As empty plastic bottles, food wrappers, cigarette butts, and various other discards end up dumped on sidewalks, gutters, and open spaces, the city not only looks neglected and untidy, but it also invites pests, clogs drainages, and increases the risk of disease outbreaks.
Under Philippine law, both national statutes and local ordinances impose duties on individuals, establishments, and local government units (LGUs) to ensure proper waste management and environmental sanitation. Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, serves as the primary legal framework for solid waste management in the country. Its core provisions include waste reduction, reuse, recycling, and proper disposal of solid waste, and while it doesn’t express the required number of public bins, it implicitly requires the infrastructure and systems necessary for effective waste collection and disposal, which includes accessible receptacles.
In Cebu City, the legislative backbone of waste management includes several ordinances. Chief among them is Cebu City Ordinance No. 2031 or the No Segregation, No Collection Policy enacted in 2004. This ordinance mandates the segregation of waste at the source into biodegradable, non-biodegradable, reusable, hazardous, and bulky wastes. While this ordinance is good on paper, its effectiveness still hinges on citizens having accessible and appropriate bins to segregate waste. In fact, this ordinance was even rolled back in 2023 due to widespread public dissatisfaction.
While there are other similar well-intentioned policies, the same would face challenges in practical implementation due to either lack of public awareness and perception or inadequate infrastructure such that many areas lack the necessary collection trucks and sorting facilities, and especially, due to lack of robust enforcement mechanisms.
Addressing this issue requires a concerted effort from the local government. The city needs to invest and install more public garbage bins while considering measures to keep them in place and avoid getting stolen. To keep them durable, these bins can be made from heavy-duty, vandal-resistant materials like thick gauge steel, with locking mechanisms. Regular inspections can also help. Allocate sufficient funding for the installation of additional garbage bins, particularly in high-traffic areas where people frequent. The local government can likewise revisit and modernize ordinances, ensuring they are updated, consistent, and enforceable.
I honestly believe that public education campaigns, especially among the youth, can help foster a culture of discipline and cleanliness, enabling more to become watchdogs in promoting responsible waste disposal.
The city needs also to delve into the implementation of alternative waste disposal methods such as recycling, composting, among others, to save operational costs in the long run.
Compliance with Republic Act No. 9003 and local ordinances is not simply optional, it is a duty. And with an environmentally committed mayor at the helm, we can expect this long-standing issue to finally receive the decisive action and priority it urgently deserves.
For a cleaner city and for a sustainable community.