La Trinidad cuts bio waste to 3 tons with ‘load back’ policy

By Dionisio Dennis Jr.

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet -- The local government of this capital town is reducing waste to prevent large-scale problem.

La Trinidad Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Officer Arthur Pedro on Wednesday said the “load back” policy of the town, which has been existing for many years is now being implemented in full swing and this has lowered the biodegradable waste generation from 17 to just three tons a day.

“The vegetable industry of the municipality produces at least 17 tons of vegetable waste every day. The stricter implementation of the "load back" policy is seen as a solution to prevent an over spill of vegetable trimmings or what is locally called “ub-bak”.

 “Ub-bak” is vegetable trimmings or the outer covering especially of the leafy vegetables which are removed prior to their packaging and transport to the different markets outside the trading post in this capital town.

 Pedro said prior to the load back policy implementation, vegetable trimmings were all brought to the composting facility of the town near the same place as the location of the sanitary landfill in Induyan, Barangay Alno.

He said the load back policy is the transportation of all types of vegetable trimmings back to their origin or to the farm where the vegetables were grown. This is to prevent the accumulation of vegetable wastes being hauled to the composting facility.

“We have to strictly implement the policy now,” Pedro said.

 He said that the policy has been existing for several years but due to the relaxed implementation, it was not observed. Farmers were allowed not to haul back their vegetable trimmings and these were simply brought to the composting facility for conversion to natural fertilizer.

“Our composting facility is still working but it has exceeded its capacity already that it can no longer accommodate the wastes coming from the trading post,” Pedro added.

To help strengthen their campaign, MENRO initiated a meeting with all the stake holders of La Trinidad trading post last week to reiterate the strict implementation of the said policy. Site inspection was also conducted at the composting facility. The meeting resulted in a reduction of the wastes collected from 17 tons to three tons per day.

 The meeting was an offshoot of a memorandum order issued by La Trinidad Mayor Romeo Salda for stricter and full implementation of the policy.

 While the policy does not carry a penalty, it needs to be implemented and complied with by those in the vegetable industry in support to the local government’s effort to reduce its waste generation. -- PNA