MANILA, Philippines -- A group of environmentalists Monday questioned the Quezon City government’s plan to open a biogas plant in Payatas, saying that it has yet to implement the long overdue closure of the dump in the area.
The Bangon Kalikasan Movement said that based on a report by another environmental organization, the Ecowaste Coalition, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources allegedly has not approved the clean development mechanism application for Payatas and the coalition recently filed a notice to sue against the city mayor for the continued operation of the Payatas dump.
Joey Papa of the Bangon Kalikasan Movement claimed that operating the dumpsite is “already illegal according to Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.”
“Dumping should have stopped in 2004 for open dumps and 2006 for so-called controlled dumps,” he explained adding that the planned activation of a biogas plant would do more harm than good.
“If dumping does not stop, extracting methane from Payatas will only encourage more waste to produce power. It is also harmful. Besides containing methane, the garbage or mixed waste also produces and emits toxic gases to the atmosphere, aggravating global warming and causing widespread illnesses. Dioxins and furans, for example, are among the emissions from the heavy metals in the dump which are carcinogenic,” Papa said.
He pointed out that the current activity in the area is harmful to the residents of the Payatas community who, he claimed, are now victims of several diseases due to the garbage dump.
Methane, he explained, is a colorless, odorless, flammable gas formed naturally by the decomposition of plant or other organic matter. But, Papa said, “Payatas hosts all other sorts of wastes that are also non-biodegradable (such as plastics), infectious (such as hospital waste), toxic or hazardous (such as discards from industrial wastes, used batteries and lamps).”
He emphasized that based on a study conducted by the US-based Grassroots Recycling Network, only about 10 percent of the methane gas could be captured while the remaining 90 percent escapes to the atmosphere even at sites that install gas collection systems.
The Quezon City government is eyeing to activate by the end of the month a biogas plant at the heart of its garbage disposal facility in Payatas.
Italian technicians of the Pangea Green Energy, a company specializing in undertaking environment and renewable energy projects worldwide, are expected to arrive in the country this month to undertake plant assembly and installation at the Biogas Emission Reduction Project site.
The project would involve the extraction, collection, and processing of biogas produced by decomposing solid waste inside the 22-hectare Payatas controlled disposal facility for ten years.
Under the process, anticipated to contribute to efforts in reducing global warming, methane from the collected biogas will be destroyed through its conversion to fuel for electricity and the other waste materials burned in a high temperature enclosed flare.
Papa proposed instead to rehabilitate and turn the dump into a mini forest, which would reduce not only emissions released to the atmosphere but also prevent the leaching of garbage juice into the ground that pollute water sources such as the nearby La Mesa Dam and the San Mateo river that goes to the Marikina River, then Pasig River, then Manila Bay.
Also as an alternative to the dumpsite, the Bangon Kalikasan Movement is promoting the Ecology Center system in the households, establishments, and villages to prevent unnecessary waste and to make use of excess resources by sorting and segregating these in the household, establishment, or the village for re-use, recycling, and composting.
