With no money for garbage collection: City opens temporary composting facility

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government has opened a temporary composting facility at the South Road Properties (SRP) in light of the continuing suspension of additional budget for garbage collection.

“Last week na gi-open. Initially, atong ma-process is one to two tons everyday from Carbon Market na biodegradable waste,” said Natural Resources Office head Arlie Gesta.

He said the composting facility will augment the existing 28 facilities in different mountain barangays in the city.

Gesta said the city targets to process 10 tons of garbage a day once the facility will be fully operational this week. At least 300 tons of garbage is delivered to the private landfill in Consolacion every day.

Gesta said the temporary composting facility at the SRP will be operational until the City Council approves the P2.8 billion Supplemental Budget-1 this year, which contains the P87 million additional fund for garbage collection and tipping fee.

Department of Public Services head Rolando Ardosa said the city’s P101 million budget for this year was already depleted since August 1.

Because of this, Mayor Michael Rama directed the establishment of the composting facility at the SRP as part of the city’s measure to solve the garbage collection problem pending the approval of the additional budget.

Rama said earlier the composting facility would allow the barangay’s garbage trucks to have more trips in collecting garbage since SRP is nearer compared to the landfill in Consolacion.

The city started disposing of its garbage to the private landfill in Consolacion after it closed the landfill in Inayawan last January 15.

Process

The one-hectare area utilized as temporary composting site is located at the SRP near Pond A.

There are different developments at the SRP, including the newly-opened SM Seaside City, which is considered the fourth biggest mall in the country.

Gesta said the garbage collected will not pile up fast because the same would be shredded.

“Pag ma-shred namo, okay na. Mao nang one to two tons sa ta kay usa pa man ka shredder machine ang naa sa atoa diha,” he said, adding that the garbage will not jeopardize the developments in the area.

“Ato gyud siyang i-manage everyday… ibutang og area nga dili siya mahimong tan-awon murag labayanan or dumpsite,” he added.

As of now, the composting facility caters to biodegradable wastes from the Carbon market, which has an average of 20 to 30 tons per day.

Gesta said the city is utilizing vermiculture or vermicomposting, which uses worms for the production of compost.

He said the Takakura method will also be employed. It uses native organisms for composting, which is cultured and fermented from locally available materials such as fresh fruits, vegetable peels, coconut wine, brown sugar, rice bran and rice husks.

“Wa pa ta kasugod sa takakura so pag time na nga makasugod ta sa takakura sa SRP, we will also be initially processing two tons per day. Then later on, we will have the windrow method which kanang windrow method dako dako gyud na siya. We will be targeting about four tons everyday,” he said.

In the long run, he said, the city would employ windrow composting, which is more applicable for large volumes of composts.

The vermicomposting process would compost biodegradable wastes from six to eight weeks, the Takakura method would take four weeks, and the windrow method would take two months.

Gesta said the composting would be easy, cheap, sanitary, and odorless. A chemical would be sprayed to prevent foul odor.

“Ato man siya spray-han ug live microorgnanism nga mo-control sa baho like EM 1. Mga effective microorganisms na siya nga patyon niya mga bad bacteria kay mao man tong maka-cause og baho  so pag ato na siya na introduce ang good bacteria, mao na ni siya ang mo dominate diha sa wastes. In turn, wa nay ma-produce na baho,” he explained.

Gesta said the composts would be given to the city’s parks and playgrounds so that it can be utilized for the ornamental plants at the city’s nurseries.  (FREEMAN)