Baguio emerging as ‘city of garbage;’ execs butt of barbs

BAGUIO CITY – This city is emerging as the “city of garbage” according to critics, but maybe not for long.

The city mayor earlier issued an order for residents to segregate their garbage so there would be no need for garbage trucks to pick these up but this resulted to mayhem and even Session Road, the city’s main thoroughfare became filthy and smelled rotten due to uncollected garbage.

Mayor Peter Rey Bautista told newsmen there was need for residents to dispose their trash properly by segregating these and if possible, bury items which rot in their backyards.

He said the recyclables could be sold ensuring that the zero waste program of the city would be attained. Good enough, critics said, but there should have been enough information dissemination drive like advertisements in local newspapers, radio or television stations by the city government so residents could have known.

They said instructions on garbage disposal posted at strategic areas of the city should have been done.

“Right along Session Road, who would take the responsibility of the trash left by establishments and vendors along sidewalks thinking there are garbage trucks to pick these up?,” asked a frequent customer of Luisa’s Restaurant.

City officials may have taken notice of the barbs so on Friday, they led residents in a massive clean-up down to barangays to ride the garbage which health officials said, could pose hazards to residents if left unchecked.

Acting Mayor Daniel Farinas called on participants to immediately segregate the garbage they swept or picked into separate bags for biodegradable, recyclable, residual and special waste in keeping with the city’s campaign for trash segregation at the source.

Engineer Nazita Banez, assistant head of the City Environment and Parks Management Office and leaders of the 18 barangay cluster created for the waste management drive distributed copies of waste classification list to guide teams spread out to various parts of the city for the general clean-up.

Farinas, in a meeting last October 17 with leaders of the “clean-up day”, also urged police to arrest and charge litterbugs. He said this was needed so constituents would realize that the city government was serious in restoring the city’s lost status as the country’s cleanest highly urbanized city in the country. Drivers and conductors of bus units coming to the city were also urged to warn passengers against littering.

Garbage collected by various groups was reportedly hauled to the city dumpsite in Irisan Barangay.
But it was learned some unscrupulous persons were imposing “tipping fees” for segregated waste being hauled by the barangays to the Irisan dumpsite.

In the thrust towards zero-waste, the city collects residuals, special and bulky waste while the barangays or their clusters pick up biodegradables and recyclables.

According to city officials, the “tipping fee” was supposed to be imposed only on private haulers and not on government units like the barangay.

There is much work to be done and the burden remains with barangays, most of which still have to set-up their segregation bins and cluster “material recovery facilities” where recyclables, or garbage which can still be reprocessed and re-used, are supposed to be stored.

At least six barangay clusters were in operation the other week, said Punong Barangay Albert Della, head of Cluster “O”.

He said the clusters may be able to hire garbage pickers at the city’s dumpsite in Irisan so they won’t be economically displaced with the gradual reduction of recyclable waste and the eventual closure of the dumpsite.

While the “no-segregation, no-collection” policy has stirred up debates on its wisdom, city officials said debates were heightening consciousness of households and their involvement in waste segregation at the source.

As per the segregation policies adopted through the mayor’s Administrative Order No. 122 series of 2007, barangay residents were mandated to enforce mandatory segregation at the source or at the household level. Wastes should be classified into five:

*Biodegradables (fruit and vegetable peelings, spoiled food, leftovers, vegetable trimmings, fish scales, egg shells, seafood shells, animal entrails and carcasses, corn cobs and sheaths, rice hulls, peanut shells, wet newspapers, cardboards, wet papers, cartons, coconut shells and husks, seeds, garden, grass clippings, pet manure, poultry, livestock manure, chipped branches, sawdust;
*Recyclables (dry papers, newspapers, dry cardboards, cartons, plastic containers, plastic materials, plastic water bottles, plastic bottle caps, tin cans and covers, aluminum cans, iron steel, broken glasses, glass bottles, toner cartridges, computer casing, computer ink cartridges, PVC pipes, PE pipes;
*Residuals (sando bags, packing wrappers, styropors, cigarette butts, worn out plastic sacks, dirt from sweepings, worn out rags, sanitary napkins, disposable diapers, plastic straws, parlor and barber shop wastes, household medicine bottles, broken ceramics, colored, broken glasses, coco fiber from cushions;
*Special (paint, thinner containers, spray canisters, household batteries, pharmaceutical wastes, spoiled, spilled expired cosmetic wastes, lead-acid batteries, used oil filters, broken tiles/lamps; and
*Bulky (destroyed TV sets, radios stereos, washing machines, dryers, stoves, refs, dishwashers, broken furniture, filing cabinets, broken book cases, beds and cushions, used rubber tires, garden debris).

Barangays will be served with regular collection services twice a week. On the first day, only biodegradables and recyclables should be brought out for collection. Residuals should only be brought on the second day while special and bulky wastes will be collected upon call at hotline 442-6597.

The city will provide a truck and driver for the special and bulky wastes but hauling should be done by the requestor or caller. Waste bags should be properly labeled for each type of waste and sealed or tied. Waste containers should be brought out on collection schedules only.

Barangays should designate curbside dumping areas and should maintain cleanliness of these areas... At the city market, the collection schedules were set 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. to 10:30 a.m.; 3p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 6:30 to 10p.m. Roving trucks will be available for door-to-door collection scheme between the schedules.

At the central business district, the collection schedule is 3 a.m. to 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. Containers should be brought out between 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. The mandatory segregation at source along with the establishment of materials recovery facilities (MRFS) in the barangays serve as complimentary schemes to stop the dumping of wastes at the open dumpsite while the city is still working on the establishment of a sanitary landfill as a permanent waste management site for the city.

Under the scheme, recyclable and biodegradable wastes will no longer be dumped at the city dumpsite. Instead, the recyclable wastes are deposited at the MRFs for disposition while the biodegradable wastes are brought at the composting plant also at the dumpsite for processing and conversion into composts.

Only the residuals will be dumped at the dumpsite. The scheme resulted to a considerable reduction of wastes being dumped at the dumpsite which inevitably affected the garbage collectors who for years depended on the dumpsite for their livelihood.

City administrator Peter Fianza said the city does not prohibit the garbage pickers from entering the dumpsite but they explained that they should face the fact that the dumpsite can no longer support their livelihood.

For those who choose to stick to the garbage trade, Fianza said they should be enterprising to network with their own neighborhood for a direct waste collection agreement. Fianza said there is a plan of the MRF coordinators in the barangays to hire some of the accredited waste pickers in running the MRFs but this is still in the drawing board.