Prime Infrastructure switches on P1 billion waste management facility in Pampanga

MANILA, Philippines — Razon-led Prime Infrastructure wants to continue turning trash into cash, investing over P1 billion for the development of a large-scale, automated materials recovery facility (MRF) in Porac, Pampanga.

Through its wholly owned unit, Prime Integrated Waste Soutions (PWS), Prime Infra inaugurated yesterday the 10-hectare facility that can process up to 5,000 tons of waste per day.

The Pampanga MRF is PWS’ first greenfield development and second operational facility next to Cebu City.

Prime Infra president and CEO Guillaume Lucci said the expansion in the province demonstrated the firm’s commitment to industrializing the waste business in the Philippines on a large scale.

“We plan to invest in a waste-to-fuel facility here that will convert the waste into fuel for ships, airplanes, trucks and so on and so forth. This is an integral part of Prime Infra’s sustainability initiatives,” Lucci said.

Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, who led the inauguration, said the investment in the facility was a big step in fostering a healthier and safer Philippines.

The country generates around 61,000 metric tons of waste daily, with 33 percent ending up in landfills and 35 percent leaked into the open environment, she said.

Prime Infra’s utilization of state-of-the-art equipment “transforms the strategy for resource recovery and also links it to our fuel transition,”  Yulo-Loyzaga said.

With the facility, the company commits to recovering, upgrading and recycling up to 80 to 90 percent of total waste received from Pampanga and other provinces in the north of Metro Manila.

In an interview on the sidelines of the event, Prime Infra market sector lead for waste Cara Peralta said the firm has yet to finalize the technology for fuel conversion.

She said they plan to expand their partnership with US-based WasteFuel Global to convert waste into different alternative fuels, including methanol and waste oil.

In 2021, Prime Infra disclosed plans to develop a waste-to-fuel project with WasteFuel Global in a bid to turn waste into a valuable source of clean energy.