Dagupan to turn waste into fuel

DAGUPAN CITY—This city by the sea will start producing diesel for public utility jeepneys and motorboats, and biogas for household use with a P385.4-million waste-to-fuel facility that will be built this year.

The facility will rise on a 1.93-hectare land in Tondaligan Park in Barangay Bonuan Gueset, part of a 72.18 ha of coastal land declared as site for parks and playgrounds. It will replace the decades-old open dump inside the park.

The project will ensure that “our garbage, our plastic debris, will not pollute our seas,” Mayor Belen Fernandez said.

According to the National Solid Waste Management Commission, Dagupan is among the nine Pangasinan cities and towns still operating open dumps.

Fernandez said the project would need at least 30 metric tons of solid waste to produce biogas and to operate at 95-percent capacity.

The facility will be put up with the help of the US government, American firm Procter and Gamble, Asian Development Bank and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon