Nora O. Gamolo
Manila Times

First of two parts

Government has only worsened the country’s waste problem by putting up new landfills and dumps. The solution is really to minimize garbage by reducing, reusing and recycling materials where possible, as indicated in Republic Act (RA) 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.

“Much of the so-called ‘garbage’ we dump are in fact materials that could be recovered though various means. Biodegradables can be composted. Paper, bottles, and some plastics can be recycled,” said Rei Panaligan, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition.

The coalition is a waste and pollution watchdog established by some 50 environmentalist groups involved in different ways of advocating environmental protection. Where it concerns solid wastes, the main wastes produced by both households and industry, it calls for zero waste production.

“Why create unnecessary wastes? If we are able to segregate what is reusable and recyclable at the household level, we will be reducing our garbage by as much as 95 percent,” said Panaligan.

He added, “If we are able to do that, we will have only residual waste of five percent of total garbage that cannot be recycled or reused, and therefore will end up in dumps and landfills. This small percentage will then be our only problem.”

The coalition has expressed dismay with the solution being offered by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) over what was perceived to be a looming garbage crisis in the city due to the impasse over two dumps in Rizal province.

Bayani Fernando, the MMDA head, told reporters after a Cabinet meeting in Malacañang that the country needs more dumps and even suggested the use of incinerators to deal with the perennial trash problem.

“His fixation with dumps and incinerators as revealed in his recent statements only shows his utter lack of respect for existing environmental laws that are meant to conserve our nation’s depleting resources and safeguard the public and the environment from toxic harm,” Panaligan said.

“Republic Act 9003 calls for the adoption of the best environmental practices in ecological waste management and explicitly excludes waste incineration as an ecological option. These polluting disposal facilities are major sources of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere,” added Manny Calonzo of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

The EcoWaste Coalition described Fernando’s ideas as not only “bad” for public health and the environment, but also utterly illegal.

Landfills and open dumps, according to studies, account for 34 percent of human-related methane emissions to the atmosphere, a global warming gas that has 23 times more heat-trapping power than carbon dioxide.  They are illegal under RA 9003.

Incinerators, on the other hand, have significantly higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions (per kilowatt) than a coal-fired power plant when all of the carbon coming out of an incinerator stack is measured. Such emissions are banned based on another law, the country’s Clean Air Act.

The MMDA has belied a looming garbage crisis in the metropolis, yet visibly, it has been in the thick of negotiations between the Rodriguez (formerly Montalban) municipal government and the Rizal provincial government, both of which are offering one landfill each to Metro Manila local governments.

The coalition is dismayed over the MMDA’s suggestions to dump garbage from Metro Manila in nearby provinces if the landfill impasse will not be resolved.

Panaligan said that to make matters worse, the existing waste disposal facilities in Rizal are located inside a watershed area in contravention of RA 9003 which bans the construction or operation of landfills or any waste disposal facility in aquifer, groundwater reservoir or watershed areas.

“Landfills for mixed waste undermine individual, household and community efforts to segregate and recycle discards. These repackaged dumps yield toxic garbage juices called leachates that contaminate the water supply, and release huge amounts of methane gas that contribute to the worsening climate conditions,” Romy Hidalgo of the Coalition’s Task Force Dumps/Landfills said.

“Why is it that our poor communities are always the first to be compromised by the incompetence of our government officials to solve the garbage problem? We should stop treating our fellow Filipinos as garbage, and our beautiful land as a dump,” Hidalgo added.

“The closure of the Montalban Solid Waste Disposal Facility is a welcome development. However, we object to the government’s nonstop pursuit of the obsolete ‘collect-dump’ approach to deal with the perennial garbage crisis,” he said.

Hidalgo added, “We should be focusing our energies and realigning funds toward zero waste programs that will reduce and eventually stop the creation of trash, and enable communities to manage their discards ecologically.”

To be continued