QC eyes reduced garbage volume

The Quezon City government hopes to reduce its garbage volume by at least 25 percent within the next three years and increase the reduction rate by 10 percent in the succeeding years.

This was disclosed by Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr., who has implemented a citywide program to lessen the trash that the city produces everyday.

In compliance with Section 21 of RA 9003 or the mandatory segregation of waste at the barangay level, at least 26 barangays in the city have now set-up their own recycling centers, nine of which were already doing their own composting. Twenty nine more have launched a clean-and-green project called "Gulayan at Bulaklakan" while 123 Barangay Ecological Waste Management committees and 29 Eco centers have been formed.

At the City Hall Complex, an ecological solid waste management program was also put in place. The goal is to keep the premises garbage-free at all times and create a showcase for the use of low-cost composting and resources recovery technologies.

The phase out of an unlicensed wet market and tiange in the area has also helped keep the premises litter-free.

The city government continues to encourage barangays to manage and reduce their garbage volume in exchange for financial incentives.

Mayor Belmonte, however, sees that the long-term solution to the city’s garbage problem is the setting up of a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), which will reduce the garbage volume significantly, in which case, even with the eventual phaseout of the Payatas dumpsite, garbage can be still hauled to an alternative site but also at a reduced cost.

The city government is now conducting studies to develop an MRF through a build-operate-transfer (BOT) arrangement. However, it would require the local government to acquire a 1.3 hectare GSIS property in Payatas as a possible MRF site. – Pia Lee-Brago