Metro trash collectors in a dilemma

Garbage contractors all over Metro Manila are in a dilemma as to how to collect all the garbage piled up on the streets over the past few weeks.

In an interview with officials of the Solid Waste Contractors Association of the Philippines (SWACAP), it was revealed that the backlog in the collection of garbage in most of the metropolis was due to the provisions of Republic Act 9003 and the absence of a dumpsite.

The SWACAP disclosed that most of the contractors have shied away from collecting the garbage on the streets because they are not properly segregated.

Under R.A. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, the bulk of the fines are imposed on the garbage contractors who collect non-segregated garbage.

The fines are in the hundreds of thousands including a percentage of the annual income of the contractors and even imprisonment.

According to the SWACAP, the mayors of the 17 local government units of Metro Manila should step in and enforce the mandatory segregation of garbage at the household level.

At present it is only the barangay officials who are tasked to enforce the segregation of garbage and this is not enough according to the contractors.

MMDA Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr. urged the contractors to come up with their own segregation units which the MMDA will subsidize.

Another reason for the backlog in the collections is the unavailability of dumpsites for several contractors.

The MMDA is still in the process of signing a contract for a sanitary landfill to handle Metro Manila’s almost 6,000 tons of garbage generated daily.

Abalos has provided two waste processing facilities for the meantime in Manggahan, Pasig and Las Piñas.

At least two more facilities are being developed in Caloocan and Valenzuela one of which would be made available sometime during the first week of September.

Jaime Paz, MMDA general manager admitted that the two facilities are not enough to handle all of Metro Manila’s garbage.

The inefficiency is due to the deluge of non-segregated garbage entering the two facilities daily.

Paz noted that the facilities were designed to handle only segregated waste, particularly biodegradables which are processed into compost materials.

He said the sorters employed inside the facilities are not capable of handling the load and as such the MMDA is forced to bar the garbage trucks from entering.

According to the SWACAP, the MMDA is finalizing the development of a temporary disposal site to be located somewhere in the Bicol provinces.

Meanwhile, solid waste contractor IPM Corp. denied that their trucks were behind the dumping of garbage in Parañaque City.

It was reported the other day that four garbage truck drivers were arrested by the Parañaque police for dumping garbage collected from Taguig at the Rodriguez Compound along Ninoy Aquino Avenue.

The firm that the trucks involved as well as the drivers were not owned and employed by them. A certain Joseph Santos from San Miguel, Bulacan is said to be the owner of the trucks.

An environmental official from Taguig corroborated the position of IPM as he admitted that the municipality hires trucks to haul the garbage from the streets but is unaware where they are eventually dumped.