Waste-related facilities set to open in July—exec

The waste-related facilities at the Umapad dumpsite will be available for use by July this year.

Engineer Ricardo Mendoza, head of the Mandaue City Solid Waste Management board, gave this assurance after he ordered the strict implementation of the closure order of the Umapad dumpsite except for eight of the 27 barangays in the city, which have no material recovery facilities (MRF).

“The order to close the dumpsite from barangay garbage trucks wasn’t strictly implemented with garbage trucks from barangays allowed to throw their biodegradable and residual wastes there,” said Mendoza last week.

“But I gave the order to strictly implement the closure of the site after the contractor complained that the garbage trucks entering there were distracting them and affecting their work,” he said.

However, he said the eight barangays would only be allowed to throw their biodegradable wastes at the dumpsite.

However, all Mandaue City barangays their residual garbage at a privately-owned dumpsite in Consolacion town in northern Cebu.

Since November last year, the city government signed a six-month P3 million deal with the Asian Energy System Corp. for the city’s residual garbage. The city government will pay P700 for every ton of residual garbage thrown at the dumpsite.

The barangays, that don’t have MRFs or facilities to process their biodegradable wastes, are Paknaan, Tipolo, Subangdako, Tawasan, Looc, Umapad, Centro and Alang-Alang.

Mendoza said, these barangays were having hard time in acquiring a lot for their MRF.

The Mandaue City government decided to temporarily close the dumpsite, starting last November, after heavy rains made the roads inside the dumpsite almost impassable for garbage trucks.

Mendoza also said that the barangay’s MRFs and the Consolacion firm’s garbage deal had lessened the city’s garbage by at least 40 percent.

He, however, encouraged private firms to have their own MRFs if possible and help lessen the city’s 150 tons of garbage from the business sector.

Mendoza, however, said that the opening of the waste-related facilities in Umapad would further lessen garbage in the city.

He was referring to the at least P33 million small landfill made of clay and polyethylene, water treatment facility, and an MRF./Correspondent Fe Marie Dumaboc