Inayawan landfill gets ‘good bacteria’

CEBU, Philippines - In order to minimize the stench coming from the Inayawan landfill, the Cebu City government did an emergency purchase of compost bacteria amounting to P400,000.

According to Department of Public Services head, former councilor Roberto Cabarrubias, it’s been the second day yesterday that the city sprayed compost bacteria on the mound of garbage at the landfill.

This amount of compost bacteria, he said, is only good for 15 days for their massive spraying activity at the landfill.

The P400,000 used to purchase 330 packs of the product was charged under the Accelerated Social Amelioration Program of the city.

Before spraying this, it must be first mixed with water within six to 12 hours for the bacteria to hibernate.

One pack of compost bacteria is equivalent to 200 liters of water.

According to Cabarrubias, the mixture’s effect can be noticed 20 to 30 minutes after it is sprayed into the garbage.

The product was introduced to the city government by CHC Agritect product consultant and developer Joel Rafer, who has read an article about the current situation of the Inayawan landfill.

Rafer said their company has been supplying odor eliminator at a poultry farm in San Fernando, Cebu.

He said these beneficial microbes are an effective rapid decomposer, odor eliminator and disinfectant.

Their company, he said, is based in Manila and has been operating since year 2002.

Meanwhile, Cabarrubias disclosed that since the city council deferred the P10 million for the purchase of anapog, the DPS put garden soil instead as service road so that the garbage trucks can still dump garbage to the upper portion of the landfill.

However, due to the recent rains, these have been damaged and now already slimy.

Garbage from the city are temporarily dumped at the lower portion and will be transferred when the weather is good again, said Cabarrubias.

The Team Rama-dominated City Council deferred the purchase of anapog because the landfill has sanitary and environmental violations and they did not want it to be operational.

Another intervention that the city government took to improve the city’s garbage collection system is the strict implementation of implementation of the “No Segregation, No Collection” policy, which was started last Wednesday.

Wastes will be categorized into four types.

Biodegradable wastes are collected on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays while non-biodegradable wastes and residual wastes on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

The schedule for the special waste is yet to be announced as this shall be handled separately by the Transporter and Treatment, Storage and Disposal (TSD) facility registered with the Environmental Management Bureau-7. (FREEMAN)