Tom says incinerators needed to address growing waste disposal woes

Local

CITING soaring waste disposal costs and limited landfill options, Cebu City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña called for a national law allowing modern incineration facilities.

He said hauling garbage to far-flung disposal sites is no longer sustainable. He also cited transport time, fuel costs, and tipping fees as major drivers of the city’s ballooning expenses.

“It’s so expensive to deliver garbage to another area,” Osmeña said on Thursday, Jan. 22.

He questioned why the Philippines continues to ban incineration while major cities abroad operate modern facilities within urban centers.

“In Paris, you can have incinerators in downtown Paris. In Taipei, you step outside a mall and there’s an incinerator. But here, they say no because of the environment, then we end up using landfills and spending P500 million to P700 million a year,” he said.

Osmeña said longer hauling distances also reduce operational efficiency, as garbage trucks spend more time on the road instead of collecting waste.

“One factor is the amount of time it takes to transport the garbage. There are many problems involved,” he said.

He added that the lack of a national policy allowing waste-to-energy incinerators has left local governments with limited options.

“The biggest problem is something we cannot solve at the local level. The Philippine government should pass a law so we can be like other countries that have incinerators,” Osmeña said.

Earlier, neighboring local government units Minglanilla and Talisay City rejected a proposal to accept Cebu City’s waste, citing environmental risks, legal constraints, and capacity limitations.

The refusals further narrowed the city’s options and heightened pressure on officials to find both short-term and long-term solutions.

Mayor Nestor Archival, responding to the developments on Friday, Jan. 23, said he understood the position of the two mayors, stressing that the volume involved, about 500 to 700 tons of garbage daily, poses a serious challenge.

“I understand the predicament of the two mayors because this is not a joke. It’s 500 to 700 tons a day, and we understand their concern for their constituents,” Archival said.

He said discussions during the meeting recognized that the landfills in neighboring towns were built primarily to serve their own residents.

“Even if it was supposed to be temporary, it still needs to be discussed with their constituents. Ma-overwhelm gyud ilang landfill,” he said.

Despite the setbacks, Archival said Cebu City will continue hauling waste to the privately operated landfill in Consolacion, which has given the city a go signal to proceed under a temporary arrangement.

“We will continue,” Archival said.

He added that the city is also exploring additional landfill options, including a site in Aloguinsan, despite the higher hauling costs involved.

To cover the added expenses, Archival said he plans to inform the city’s disaster risk reduction and management committee next week of his request to realign P30 million to support garbage operations.

He also said the city will again ask the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to consider allowing a transfer station within Cebu City to reduce hauling time and costs.(TGP)