DENR seeks 100% nod of LGUs on solid waste management plans

SAVING WATERWAY Volunteers, armed with sticks used as trash pickers, clean a section of San Juan River in Batangas province. The environment department says waste from households and livestock farms contribute to pollution of major rivers in Calabarzon. —PHOTO COURTESY OF DENR CALABARZON

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) is hoping to get 445 cities and towns to approve its 10-year plan for taking care of waste this year.

So far, 1,147 out of 1,592 cities and towns have already said yes to the plan.

“To achieve the 100 percent target, the EMB has called on the remaining 445 LGUs with no approved and submitted SWMPs to take proactive actions to develop their plans and have them approved by the NSWMC,” the DENR said in a statement.

Creating a 10-year Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) is required by Republic Act 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The law says that managing solid waste must not harm the environment.

To celebrate National Zero Waste Month in January, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) held a two-day meeting with the Department of the Interior and Local Government to go over the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

The meeting included 300 people talking to the DENR about their plans.

The plans got looked at very carefully by the EMB in their regional office and in their main office.

If the plan didn’t have everything it needed, it would get sent back to the people who made it. Otherwise, it would be sent to the executive committee of the NSWMC.

—MJ Soriano, INQUIRER.net trainee

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