Solid Waste Management summit results: WTE, MRF, segregation a must

Mayor Michael Rama signs the Solid Waste Management manifesto. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City wrapped up its first Solid Waste Management Summit (SWM) on April 8, 2022, and the SWM Board is now planning to amend the 10-year SWM plan that the Commission on Audit (COA) has required of the city in 2020.

Waste-to-energy facilities, segregation, and material recovery facilities (MRF) will be among the topmost priority in the 10 year SWM plan.

Lawyer Jade Ponce, chairman of the SWM Board, said that they would be collating everything that had been said from the city’s own departments to international solution companies.

The goal of the SWM Board is to find the most efficient, feasible, and realistic solution to the city’s massive garbage problem with  the existing challenge that the solution must be budget-friendly.

“Some things wala natackle (were not tackled). The elephant in the room is about budget, because we cannot delude ourselves. Unsaon man ta ni atong mga solutions (What will we do with the solutions), segregations or recycling, tanan-tanan gipangmention (all that have been mentioned) need to be paid. Nothing is free,” said Ponce.

Lawyer John Jigo Dacua, head of the Department of Public Services (DPS), said that the SWM summit’s aim was more of to gather minds so that any amendments to the city’s 10-year SWM plan would reflect the actual needs of the city’s stakeholders.

He added that many solutions presented to the city would need further study beyond the summit to see its feasibility, its long term and short term impacts, as well as its viability for a highly urbanized city such as Cebu.

“Ato sa ning studyohan whether or not these solutions would fit our needs. Rest assured, ato gyod nang tutukan,” said Dacua.

(We still have to study these whether or not these solutions would our needs. Rest assured, we will focus on this.)

Ponce said that waste management was not a simple problem but a holistic one, which was why the city was also holding a traffic summit to address mobility.

Mayor Michael Rama, in his press conference on Friday, said that the SWM summit had given a direction for the city to solve the waste management problem.

“Cooperation is needed. Everyone must do his or her part, even at the household level. To make everyone cooperate, we must raise their awareness on their role in harming the environment and their role in taking care of it. To operationalize this, intensive information and education campaign (IEC)  is needed,” he said. 

The mayor noted that out of the SWM summit, he surmised that there was a need to relocate informal settlers away from banks and rivers to prevent residents from throwing trash in the waterways.

Waste-to-energy facilities is “the way” and while he considers the points of environmentalists, there should be a middle ground where a WTE can be built in the city while protecting the environment.

The barangays should also be engaged because garbage production starts in the households and businesses and the barangays play the leading role in monitoring them.

“The technology and the facilities to better address the city’s solid waste management problem are already here. The city planners are now aware and would seriously look into them. I, as mayor, will,” said Rama.

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