Estrada on Manila taking QC garbage: Nimby

Nimby (Not in my backyard).

This in essence was Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada’s response to the possibility that his city would be taking in garbage from Quezon City following the closure of the Payatas sanitary landfill.

Estrada stressed there was no official agreement between the two cities  allowing the dumping of trash at Vitas Marine Loading Station in Tondo.

“Are we going to be their trash bin?” he said Tuesday.

Vitas was earlier named one of the alternative disposal sites for Quezon City’s wastes after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources ordered the permanent closure of Payatas last month.

Asked also on Tuesday if Vitas was still being considered, Frederika Rentoy, head of the QC Environment Protection and Waste Management Department, said her office had decided that the Rodriguez Provincial Sanitary Landfill in Rizal province would be used instead.

She explained that in Manila “we were given limited window hours and turnaround time (for the dump trucks) would take about eight hours.” In comparison, the turnaround time to Rodriguez would be only about four to five hours, she added. —Jhesset O. Eñano