Cebu City Hall’s Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) wants to hire a private firm to provide a Waste Transfer Station (WTS) for the city.
In a recent resolution, the board recommended to Mayor Michael Rama to allow the Department of Public Services (DPS) and the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CCENRO) to look for a private company for the WTS.
“The immediate and most viable solution to this dilemma (on garbage collection and dumping) is for the Cebu City government to employ the Waste Transfer Station system which is already a proven solution in other cities in the Philippines as well as abroad,” read the board’s resolution.
The WTS will function as a temporary receiving facility for municipal solid waste collected by barangay garbage collection trucks.
The garbage will then be transferred to bigger long-distance haulers for transport and disposal at the designated sanitary landfill.
Proper drainage
The SWMB wants the private WTS to have a working area of at least 2,000 square meters.
It should also be enclosed with concrete walls and proper roofing to shield the facility from rain and other elements.
It should also have concrete flooring for ease of use and to prevent seepage of harmful leachate into the ground as well as proper drainage for containment, storage or treatment of the leachate.
The WTS should also be located in an area where the immediate community won’t be hostile to the presence of a WTS in their area.
The owner should also be able to provide long haul trucks to transport the collected waste as well as a payloader or backhoe to transfer the waste delivered to the facility.
Total closure
“(They also) must ensure that all solid waste delivered to the Waste Transfer Station must be hauled off to the sanitary landfill at Polog, Consolacion, within 24 hours,” read one of the terms specified in the resolution.
The city government implemented a total closure of the Inayawan Sanitary Landfill last January 15.
Since then, the city’s barangay trucks, which have been poorly maintained, must travel several kilometers to Consolacion to dump their garbage. Cebu City averages more than 400 tons of garbage daily.