CEBU City Hall wants to set up a centralized materials recovery facility (MRF) inside the already closed Inayawan landfill.
Councilor Eugenio Gabuya Jr. authored an ordinance to put up an MRF in the closed landfill’s five-hectare service area.
Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act requires local governments to operate an MRF.
He said while the law requires establishing MRFs in each barangay or cluster of barangays, it has not been followed.
The proposed ordinance had been referred to the committee on laws for review.
“Most of the barangays in Cebu City don’t have the funds and land area for the establishment and operation of their own MRF for their collected biodegradable, compostable and reusable wastes,” Gabuya said in the ordinance.
An MRF is where municipal solid waste is segregated and processed using manual and/or mechanical methods.
Gabuya said the ordinance seeks to ensure that only residual wastes will have to be hauled by the city to a private landfill.
Cebu City currently spends P1,200 to P1,300 per ton of garbage to a private hauler which takes the city’s garbage from a private transfer station to a private landfill in Consolacion. The city produces 600 to 700 tons of garbage a day.
Based on Cebu City’s Waste Analysis and Characterizations as of 2015, organic wastes make up the bulk of the city’s wastes at 66.65 percent.
Other classifications include: plastic (15.61%), paperboard (4.11%), textile (1.60%), tins (1.49%), wood (1.08%), bottles (1.03%), rubber (0.83%) and construction demolition waste (0.82%).
Under section 5 of the proposed ordinance, the Cebu City Centralized MRF will operate 24/7.
Once approved, the ordinance will also compel the strict implementation of waste segregation at source in the city.
In the proposed process, biodegradables will be further segregated, treated and transferred to applicable disposal or treatment facilities.
All non-biodegradables are segregated and processed or can also be baled, compacted or stacked and eventually sold to recycling or manufacturing firms.
Lastly, residual materials from mixed wastes are either used as refuse-derived fuel for waste-to-energy or gasified plants or disposed to a private sanitary landfill whichever is “practicable.”
“The budgetary requirement could be charged to LSA-Capital Outlay for Solid Waste Management or by contractual arrangements that the city can enter into such as Public-Private Partnerships, Joint Venture, or Build Operate Transfer,” the proposed ordinance read.