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
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