Cebu City to enforce no segregation, no collection rule

EITHER segregate or go all the way to Consolacion town to dump your garbage.

Rolando Ardosa, chief of Cebu City Hall’s Department of Public Services (DPS), said this as the city’s barangay officials committed to enforce waste segregation in their areas starting March 1.

“Once we re-implement segregation next month, those who won’t follow segregation will have to throw their garbage in the Consolacion landfill,” Ardosa said.
During yesterday’s solid waste management seminar at City Hall, Ardosa said they don’t expect 100 percent compliance at the get-go.

He said they will initially target 50 percent compliance among residents.

Randy Navarro, Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO) chief, said the city started strict enforcement of the no segregation, no collection policy in April 2011 but it enforcement slackened in early 2012.

“It’s not totally zero. There are still 20 percent of the garbage that’s segregated,” he told Cebu Daily News.

Councilor Nida Cabrera, who heads the council’s committee on environment said she proposed to amend City Ordinance 2031 or the segregation at source ordinance.
The amendment would allow a separate collection schedule for plastics wastes.

“The plastics will be collected and brought to a facility in Talamban which will turn the plastics into plastic boards that can be used for housing,” she said.
Cabrera said she hopes to have it approved and implemented in May this year in time for the arrival of the facility to be donated by Kitakyushu City of Japan.

Yesterday’s seminar was organized by the Cebu City Solid Waste Management Board.
Cabrera said the city appropriates over P100 million a year for disposal fees of garbage in Consolacion and it’s still insufficient.

“I’m requesting the barangays to actively help reduce waste in their own areas. Hopefully, we can lower our waste by 10 percent every month,” she said.
Cabrera said a lower volume of garbage disposed would lower the budget for tipping fees.

The budget saved from tipping will eventually benefit the barangays through more incentives, she said.
The city disposes an average of 300 tons of garbage in a day, Navarro said. A tipping fee of P700 per ton will have to be paid by the Cebu City government.

The attending barangay officials also pledged their support.
Councilor and Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) president Phillip Zafra said he asked the barangay officials to support this plan.

Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act mandates segregation and collection of solid waste at the barangay level.