PRIVATE firms are partnering with the city governments of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu cities to convert waste to energy.
In Lapu-Lapu City, officials announced the start of construction of a P1.2 billion peso waste-to-energy plant later this year by an American firm.
Cebu City is finalizing details for the development of a 24-megawatt power plant which will use waste from the Inayawan landfill as fuel.
In a press conference last Tuesday, representatives of Zehira USA, Lapu-lapu City Mayor Paz Radaza, and Vice Mayor Marcial Ycong announced that construction of the waste-to-energy plant in Soong, barangay Mactan will start later this year.
Michael Jimenez, president of Zehira USA, said a Herhof plant is a mechanical biological treatment facility, which specializes in the construction and operation of waste treatment systems to generate energy from waste.
In February of 2011, Lapu-Lapu city signed a joint venture agreement with Zehira USA, for the zero waste management technology -Herhof.
Lapu-Lapu City will be the first to have it in the country, Jimenez said.
Radaza said that the waste to energy project will not only solve the problem of garbage but also propel the city’s waste management into a a modern waste disposal system.
In Cebu City, Mayor Michael Rama said he wanted to be certain about the city’s revenue share from the conversion of garbage at the Inayawan sanitary landfill to energy as proposed by the Greenergy Solutions Incorporated (GSI).
In a June 20 resolution, the Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board endorsed to Rama the GSI proposal for landfill remediation in the next 25 years.
Janesses Ponce, the board chairman, said that remediation plans and the conversion of landfill waste to energy will be done at no cost to the city government.
He said that Mayor Rama only needed to enter into an Integrated Waste Management Agreement (IWMA) with GSI chairperson and CEO Ruth Briones, who is also a convenor of the Zero Waste Philippines.
The planned facility will be capable of processing up to 1,000 tons per of residual waste and fresh waste daily and produce approximately 24 megawatts of electricity.
Rama said that he supports the GSI proposal “but this will have to undergo deliberation by the city council.”/Fe Marie D. Dumaboc, Norman V. Mendoza and Doris C. Bongcac