Binaliw landfill developer: We’re working on the ‘bad’ smell

Employees clean up the remaining trash at the landfill located in Barangay Binaliw. | Gerard Vincent Francisco

CEBU CITY, Philippines —  The Binaliw landfill developers, ARN Builders, said they are working on the complaints of the Barangay Binaliw residents regarding the smell from the landfil, which they said actually came from the haulers delivering garbage to the landfill.

Sherwin Santos, ARN Central Waste Management Inc. president, said that in the landfill within the ARN development compound, the garbage had been sprayed with neutralizing agents to minimize the smell immediately after the delivery.

He said this had been their protocol to make sure the smell of the landfill would not affect the nearby residents of the barangay and to keep the smell as minimal as possible.

Read more: EMB-7: Landfill operator and Binaliw officials to meet to discuss residents’ complaints

Following the technical conference with the Environmental Management Bureau in Central Visayas (EMB-7) and the Binaliw barangay officials, ARN Builders promised to require the haulers to spray neutralizing agents to the garbage they delivered even before they could reach the landfill so the people would not have the suffer.

“We told them to spray at least once or twice for non-biodegradable trash and thrice for biodegradable trash. It’s the biodegradable trash that has a strong putrid smell,” said Santos during the media briefing of the Binaliw landfill.

He said that aside from spraying neutralizing agents, the landfill had also been covered with soil within one hour of delivery to avoid the accumulation of bacteria and causing more “bad” smell and even health risks to the workers.

Read more: EMB-7 gives ARN Builders 100 days to comply with environmental laws

Santos said that the landfill development had been designed to have a sustainable waste management facility.

There are five landfill basins in the compound which is the main function of the development but along with it, ARN has designed other facilities to decrease the volume of garbage being thrown directly into the landfill.

One of which is the automated Material Recovery Facility (MRF) where the EMB-7 required ARN to complete permits for the facility within 100 days.

The MRF of the Binaliw landfill is currently manual as the machine has yet to be completed, but it is expected to employ at least a hundred workers in three shifts per day.

Aside from the MRF, a waste to energy facility will also be constructed within the next three years through gasification and anaerobic digester tanks.

This waste to energy facility is expected to decrease the garbage input to the landfill by 80 percent and provide 18 to 20 megawatts of power that can be used to help power the city.

Furthermore, the byproduct of the facility could be used as a fertilizer, which Santos said would be given to the Department of Agriculture (DA) to be distributed to the local farmers for free.

Santos said that he was hoping that the Binaliw residents could see the benefit of the development that ARN was building in the 15-hectare property because it would actually benefit the entire community./dbs