A photo of the transfer station outside the Inayawan landfill taken by Councilor Joel Garganera.
CEBU City Hall should “get its act together” in enforcing waste segregation at the household level to help solve the city’s garbage problem, a local representative of the environmental group Greenpeace said yesterday.
“Segregation of biodegradable and nonbiodegradable wastes should be done at homes in keeping with the spirit of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000,” Vince Cinches said.
The law prohibits the collection and transportation of nonsegregated wastes, and it also includes mixing source-separated waste in any container used for solid waste collection or disposal.
Violation of the provision is punishable with imprisonment from one day to three years, or fines from P300 to as much as P500,000.
“There should be a material recovery facility to sort out types of garbage, where only residual wastes will be brought to the landfills,” Cinches said.
He said the barangays are the frontliners in the waste segregation campaign.
“We would like to request the city and barangays to assess what happened to the MRF and segregation at the local level. We also would like to request to look at what happened to the budget allocated to implement RA 9003,” Cinches said.
Cebu City Councilor Joel Garganera said he will send a letter to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) 7 asking them to inspect the city’s materials recovery facility outside the Inayawan landfill.
Cebu Daily News tried to contact Engineer William Cuñado, regional director of EMB-7, but he did not pick up calls or reply to text messages.
Garganera said he received complaints on the stench emanating from the transfer station being used by the private hauler contracted by Cebu City Hall outside the closed Inayawan landfill.
Under Republic Act 9003, a transfer station is designed and operated in order to efficiently handle waste capacity. No waste can be stored in a transfer station for more than 24 hours.
Garganera also called on City Hall environmental consultant Nida Cabrera to persuade Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to release the financial
assistance for the barangay garbage loaders and drivers that remain pending for six months now.
Cebu Daily News tried but was unable to contact Cabrera.