Dagupan City prepares rollout of $15 million waste-to-energy plant first of its kind in Southeast Asia

DAGUPAN, Philippines — A groundbreaking $15-million facility that will convert solid waste into fuel is nearing the final stages of completion in Dagupan, a first-class city in the northern province of Pangasinan.

Waste2Worth Innovations founder and CEO Jill Boughton, whose former employer Procter & Gamble initiated the project, said the zero emissions waste-to-energy plant will convert plastic trash into diesel to power public utility vehicles and fishing boats. Dagupan, known as the Bangus Capital of the Philippines, leans heavily on fishing to drive its economy.

Dagupan emerged as  a top choice to pilot a waste-to-worth project based on criteria set out by Procter and Gamble, in partnership with the National Solid Waste Management Commission and the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines.

Intended to eliminate waste going to landfill, it involves the establishment of a waste management and processing facility that will convert waste into valuable commodities to stimulate economic development.

Boughton said with the volume of the city’s food waste – rotting food at the dump sends methane gas, 26 times more harmful than carbon dioxide, into the air – the Waste2Worth plant will also convert this waste form into natural gas to fuel motorized tricycles.

Dagupan’s City dumpsite is located along the seashore on Barangay Boquig, which is considered an environmentally critical area. It is also within the vicinity of government offices and may affect the air quality of surrounding communities. The sanitary conditions make people living in these areas vulnerable to diseases.

“I knew if we could make our solution economically viable on a small-city scale, it could work anywhere,”  Boughton said. When completed, the project will make Dagupan the first small city in Southeast Asia to utilize this technology.

Funded by Dow, the world’s largest plastic producer, the Waste2Worth facility only needs the signature of Dagupan City Mayor Brian Lim to enable the financial closing with project investors and proceed with the construction, installation and commissioning of one unit by year-end.

The project is targeted to be partly operational by the second quarter next year.