Stinking garbage

One of the items included in that much-talked-about (at least in Cebu City) Supplemental Budget 1 (SB1) was the funds that will be used by the city government to pay the private haulers of garbage and the tipping fee to the private landfill operator in Consolacion town.

The Rama administration made quite a show in dramatizing the urgency for the City Council to approve the supplemental budget by parking the garbage trucks in front of City Hall to drive home the point that garbage will be uncollected unless money pours in to pay for its disposal.

In deferring the approval of the SB1, the Bando Osmeña-Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) bloc argued that there are other available funds worth more than P1 billion that could be used to pay for the tipping fees and the charges of private garbage haulers.

Rather than be regaled with the ping-pong battle and political wranglings between the Rama administration and the BO-PK, Cebu City residents should take a closer look at how the city government has been dealing with the garbage problem and whether there are better solutions other than paying private haulers and a private landfill to accommodate the city’s garbage.

For one thing: did the Cebu City government pursue an aggressive waste segregation and management program that would have significantly cut down the city’s garbage problem?

The city government, through its Solid Waste Management Board, is said to have a plant that converts garbage into usable fluff material that can be sold to construction firms for a profit. What gives? Is there a plan to build more similar plants to accommodate a good portion of the city’s garbage?

We have learned of reports that a materials recovery facility (MRF) was being installed in barangay Apas only for it to meet opposition from a homeowners group despite the project securing clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Is the Rama administration pursuing MRFs in other areas which could reduce the amount of garbage in the city? Maybe the Cebu City government can learn a thing or two from the Mandaue City government which is said to be doing a better job of dealing with its garbage problem.

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama had been on the record as saying that he prefers to have the city garbage dumped someplace else and pay the tipping fee to the local government willing enough to accommodate the garbage, say Talisay City, since it’s also a way of helping them earn extra income.

But unless an adequate number of MRFs, garbage transfer stations and an aggressive waste segregation and management program are enforced, the city might find itself in need of another landfill facility within its area to dispose of the mounting, stinking garbage.