Plant turns rubbish into building materials

MANILA, Philippines - A hazardous waste treatment facility is not only reducing garbage volume, it is also transforming some of the rubbish into concrete-based materials that can be used for construction and other applications.

Gennix-Pathogenesis, a division of Pathogenesis Inc., treats and processes commercial and industrial waste into hollow blocks, roof tiles, wall panels, paving slabs, road dividers, curbstones, as well as artificial reef blocks that are as strong as the same items manufactured and sold commercially.

“We are not yet commercially viable, so we give our products to charity, like the Philippine Christian Foundation or some other schools which need them, for free. We can also work with clients to supply materials as specified by them for in-house projects,” said managing director Hamish Moore.

“It is a benefit for us actually to give it away rather than bring it to the sanitary landfill,” he added.

The waste treatment company proudly calls itself a “specialist” in the field of handling commercial, industrial and bio-hazardous trash. Moore pointed out that the firm uses the patented “Palingenesis Process” that ensures the chemical neutralization of all contaminants in the waste, before it goes through concrete encapsulation.

“We provide a fully-integrated disposal service, as we employ an innovative approach to environment management, which gives our clients peace of mind,” Moore claimed.

“We provide secure onsite storage facilities, thereby reducing the need for clients to store the waste on their own premises. All shipments are weighed and logged upon arrival at our plant as part of our complete material management process,” he added. The company’s hazardous waste treatment facility is located in Barangay Tunasan, Muntinlupa City.

According to Moore, Gennix-Pathogenesis trans-forms waste through a number of processes. First is sorting, which comes after appropriate laboratory analysis. Materials are fed into the processing equipment and pass through a shredder to come out with uniform-sized particles.

Neutralization follows, where the main processing unit treats all materials using a “specifically devised formula of neutralizing chemicals.”

Additionally, bio-waste is treated under UV lights in an ozone-enhanced atmosphere in a sealed unit to accelerate the neutralization process.

The final stage of the process is called Encapsulation, where cement, sand and lime are added to the neutralized aggregate, after which the resultant concrete mix is sent for block formation.