BAGUIO CITY - The city government here will now embark on a combined Thai, Japanese and Filipino composting technology to significantly solve the city's garbage problem the soonest before the local funds will be drained by the hauling of waste to a sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.
Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan challenged a team from Thailand to immediately make their appropriate recommendations on how to maximize the use of the closed Irisan dumpsite as a source of gas and energy for the benefit of residents in the surrounding villages while providing the appropriate enzymes that will lessen the odor of the stocked garbage in the said areas.
The Thai technology allows the conversion of biodegradable waste into methane gas which could be used by residents in clustered areas in the villages while mixed waste could be dumped in a so-called bio landfill for the generation of the same type of gas that could be converted into energy.
Based on the Thai proposal, the village-based composting facility is capable of converting one-ton of biodegradable waste into 20 kilos of cooking gas which could be used by hundreds of households while the bio-landfill is also capable of treating some 300 tons of mixed waste daily and generate substantial energy that could help enhance the city's energy self-sufficiency.
Aside from the Thai technology, Domogan claimed the local government is working for the importation of an equipment from a Japanese manufacturer that could convert at least 24 tons of garbage into compost fertilizer in just two weeks, thus, the two units to be imported will be vital in solving the city's expensive hauling of garbage outside the city.
At the same time, the local government here is also composting at least eight tons of biodegradable waste at the Irisan dumpsite while the same volume of waste will also be composted in an identified composting site in Barangay Loakan which could significantly reduce the hauled waste to Tarlac.
By reducing or eventually stopping the hauling of waste to the province of Tarlac, Domogan explained the city will be having a better opportunity to seriously consider what will be the best alternative to further solve the garbage problem for the benefit of the present and future generations of local residents here.
Once the two types of technology will be in place in the city, the local chief executive believes much that the problem will be addressed, thus, local officials could already start focusing their attention to other pressing problems here while still working on available options eventually convert the city's waste into useful endeavors for the benefit of generating substantial income for the city government through the use of available technology.
He stressed that the city will still pursue the construction of the city's engineered sanitary landfill in a city-owned property as provided for under Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, but surveys are now being done to determine the affected claimants so that the city could start negotiating with them and come up with an acceptable deal so that the project will be realized in the future.
