CEBU CITY, Philippines—For 13 years and with an almost similar routine, 54-year-old George Aballe had been scavenging through mounds of garbage at the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill in Barangay Inayawan in Cebu City.
He woke up at 6 a.m. and picked up plastics, bottles and tin cans at 8 a.m. Before 3 p.m., he headed to a junk shop to sell his find. He was home by 4 p.m. to cook dinner and work, this time, as a reflexologist.
Those ways abruptly changed on April 1 when the city government ordered the closure of the landfill because it has already exceeded its capacity.
Councilor Ma. Nida Cabrera, chair of the city council’s committee on environment, says the landfill has become a dump in violation of Republic Act No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
With its closure, the city government started to implement a “no segregation, no collection” policy in 80 barangays.
Now, residents must sort out their garbage into biodegradable matter (such as fruit peelings and food leftovers), nonbiodegradable items (bottles, plastics, etc.) and residual wastes (napkins, diapers, etc.) and follow the pick-up schedule: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday for biodegradable and residual wastes and Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for nonbiodegradable wastes.
The policy is not really new.
In 2004, the council passed an ordinance, prohibiting the disposal of unsegregated garbage. However, the law has not been seriously enforced until now.
The city government spends P100 million yearly to operate the landfill, which includes applying deodorizer and soil cover, electricity and personnel fees.
“It was about time to close the landfill and encourage people from the barangays to segregate their wastes and practice composting at home,” Cabrera says.
She adds that landfill personnel are mandated “not to accept garbage from barangays which are not segregated.”
Before, the residents were encouraged to segregate garbage but these were placed in the same area in the landfill.
“This time, the garbage collectors are instructed not to receive mixed garbage because they cannot unload mixed garbage when they reach the landfill. They will be asked to return it to their barangays,” Cabrera says.
The policy was not exactly received warmly by the barangay leaders on the first two weeks of implementation. Only 22 of the 80 barangays had material recovery facilities (MRFs) with composting areas and shredders.
In a meeting on March 23, the barangay chairs sought an extension of the landfill use, but Mayor Mike Rama turned down the request.
“We were forced to implement the policy and think of ways to reduce and manage wastes in our barangays,” says Eliodoro Sanchez, barangay chair of Busay. His village is the biggest among the city’s 33 mountain barangays with a population of 13,000 and a yearly income of P5 million, but it has no MRF.
Busay has two garbage trucks and four collectors who receive P5,000 in monthly honorarium.
Sanchez describes the first two weeks of April as a test of patience and willpower. “The hardest part was to educate the people about this change and why this will work this time,” he says.
To spread the word about the new policy, small meetings were held with women’s groups, chapel officers, senior citizens and homeowners’ associations.
Environment officers
In the urban barangay of T. Padilla, the same challenge was noted, says barangay environment officer (BEO) Michelle Binolirao.
“We engaged in heated conversations with our neighbors who did not like the new policy,” she says.
Each barangay has five BEOs, which serve as representatives of the City Environmental Sanitation Enforcement Team (Ceset) in enforcing the solid waste management system. A BEO receives P2,000 in monthly honorarium.
Binolirao and other BEOs, Rufina Jimeno and Mary Joy Maribojoc, go house-to-house with garbage collectors on board trucks from noon to 4 p.m. to check if wastes are properly segregated. The two other BEOs monitor places where people normally dump their trash to prevent these from accumulating.
The dumping area in the Inayawan landfill covers 11.73 hectares of land. The entire property has a total area of 15.41 hectares.
The facility opened in September 1998 with a volume capacity of 938,400 cubic meters. About 1,360 cubic meters of garbage, or some 450 tons, are dumped daily. Full capacity was expected to be reached in 2005.
Less garbage
Though the road toward proper garbage management has been uphill for Cebu City, garbage disposal data from the Landfill Operations Office showed some positive signs.
From 41,890 cu.m. of garbage disposed in March, the volume dropped to 28,637 cu.m. in April when the waste segregation policy was implemented.
“We are slowly witnessing change of attitude among people in the barangays,” Cabrera says.
The Inayawan landfill is now being converted into a waste-processing area, equipped with six bioreactors, carbonizer and shredder. Plastics are shredded and can be used as binders for footpaths.
At least 600 displaced scavengers, including Aballe, have been hired to segregate nonbiodegradable items. They work in three shifts and are promised P280 in daily pay.
Aballe is grateful even if the pay was lower than what he used to earn as a scavenger. At least, he now has a job, he says.
Partnership
Cabrera says the city will adopt a two-pronged approach in addressing garbage management. It will partner with institutions that can utilize products from biodegradable (fertilizer from composting) and nonbiodegradable wastes (e.g. shredded plastic).
At the same time, it will put up a garbage gasification plant in the landfill to convert waste into energy.
“The technology is already there. We are setting it up in the landfill area. It will be the first in the Philippines,” Cabrera says.
Gloria Estenzo Ramos, codirector of the environmental group Philippine Earth Justice Center, says the city government is taking a difficult yet doable path toward environment preservation.
“They (officials) have only just begun. But the fact that the city has a chief executive who saw the need to implement the solid waste management law is a good sign,” she says.
Dr. Glen Martin Green, a professor at the University of San Carlos’ Biology Department, says Cebu could set an example in proper solid waste management if the campaign is sustained in the next five years.
“If we just give further push and think that what we are throwing is not waste but an input to a product, Cebu can show the rest of the world that it can be done,” Green says.