Sagada villages urged to manage own waste

Materials Recovery facility (MRF) at Makamkamlis, Poblacion Sagada 

By Gina Dizon

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- With the suspension of the collection of waste delivered at  the materials recovery facility (MRF) at  sitio Makamkamlis,  the 19 barangays here  in this tourist town are urged to  manage their own garbage, segregate and manage household waste and establish  compost pits.
    This including  waste generated at the public market shall be brought home by each corresponding vendor for proper disposition as  stated  by Municipal Mayor  Felicito Dula in  Executive Order 65-2022.
    The  Order  comes with the Vestry of the Church of St Mary the Virgin (CSMV) having informed  the local  government  to relocate the MRF on or before December  31,2022 due to the  MRF site not operated as it is intended to be.
    ‘This is a big challenge for the municipality in addressing waste management issues’, Dula said in an interview.
    The Sagada LGU entered into a memorandum of agreement  in 2010 with the CSMV  for the establishment of an MRF  to “develop a solid waste management program for the entire municipality of Sagada  that include information education, local policy formulation and enforcement, engineering infrastructure and livelihood development from waste.”
    In said agreement, CSMV provided for  a 200 square meter lot in sitio Makamkamlis within the Church lot  for the operation of said MRF site.
    Through the years waste generated from households within the Poblacion area has  been dumped at the MRF site. with piles of unrecycled garbage both degradable and non degradable.
    In said MRF site, residual waste come from the Poblacion area while  non degradable  plastic and glass bottles from nearly 19 barangays of the town. 
    For some time too the MRF became a  burning  site to the dismay and irritation of the neighbouring households due the stench of burning garbage. 
    And for quite some time too, the MRF was not operating as it was intended to be.
     Waste including  plastic, styrofoam, pampers, paper, worn out shoes and clothes and  even dog poo and sand get dumped at the MRF site.
    Waste that reach the MRF are mostly unsegregated, MRF staff said to their dismay why these were not sorted before it reached the MRF site.
    In said agreement with CSMV, the LGU  has in its responsibilities to monitoring that waste is segregated and that only clean non biodegradable waste are brought to the MRF.
    One of the MRF staff said the surroundings of the MRF have already been dug up to bury biodegradable and residual waste brought to the site.
    And  for  quite a short period though, the MRF recycled  glasses  into powder.
    Unfortunately, the glass crusher broke down and not repaired resulting to piles of bottles placed in sacks.
    Glass bottles were  then crushed into powder though not aggressively marketed as material to mix with cement for the construction of  pavements or walls.
    Plastic bottles are also accumulated where a resident from time to time take these.. 
    A plastic recycling equipment is not being used by  the MRF staff due to the hazardous  odor being emitted.
    This leaves a shredder that makes shredded waste into organic fertilizer.
    As to the accumulated  residual waste need to be hauled out.
    ‘We are scouting for a site to bring the waste’,  Mayor Dula said in an interview.
    Sagada locals in cooperation with the  LGU then in the late ‘80s on to the early ‘90s operated  a makeshift MRF site with the active involvement of a local  organization with  some retired teachers who collected waste and segregated,, washed and cleaned these before these were brought to the MRF site.
    It was also during these years in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when Sagada earned a national fame award for being a clean and green town.
    As tourism again comes into operation, so with waste management becoming more of a demand  to crucially attend to primarily by the locals and the LGU to provide the necessary monitoring and implementation of Republic Act 9003.
    RA 9003 mandates the LGUs to address ecological solid waste management programs,  necessary institutional mechanisms and incentives, declaring certain acts prohibited and providing penalties thereof.