A COALITION of environmentalists warns all local government units (LGUs) in Mindanao, particularly in Cagayan de Oro, to be cautious in dealing agreements with any company that proposes waste-to-energy technologies.
Merci Ferrer, executive director of Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), said LGUs that deal with this kind of proposals should seek public approval and further study the project before signing any contract.
Ferrer said she is alarmed with the information that a German company named Herhof GmbH has a pending proposal at the City Council of Cagayan de Oro.
The group discovered that Herhof already secured 25 to 50-year deals with the local governments of Molave, Zamboanga del Sur; Glan, Saranggani, Panao City, Davao del Norte and Midsayap in North Cotabato.
It also has a pending proposal that is still being discussed by the local government of Davao City.
City Councilor President Elipe, chairperson of the City Council’s committee on environment and natural resources, confirmed Herhof has a pending proposal with the City Government.
Elipe said Herhof GmbH presented its proposal about two months ago and even submitted a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the City Government to sign.
However, he said the City Council returned the MOA for review, citing several problems stated in the agreement.
“They required the City Government to produce 1,000 tons of garbage a day. Where can we find that huge sum of garbage?” Elipe told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
Although the proposal is still under study by the City Council, Elipe said they will also get the recommendation of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), being the expert, before considering the project.
It was learned that Herhof promotes the collection and burning of mixed wastes, which violates the Clean Air Act and Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
The German company and its recently formed local counterpart TIG Green Mindanao plan to put up “stabilat” plants in different areas in Mindanao to “pelletize” mixed municipal and hazardous wastes to be burned in their facilities or sold as co-fuel for cement kilns.
“Ang proposal na ito ay isang panlilinlang sa mga mamamayan lalo na sa Mindanao dahil ang teknolohiyang ito ay isang incinerator na inihain upang sunogin natin ang ating mga basura,” Ferrer told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. “Mababaon din tayo sa utang na babayaran ng mga LGU sa mga requirements ng kompanyang ito na sobrang mahal.”
Rei Panaligan of EcoWaste Coalition added that to say “yes” to the wanton burning of discarded papers, bottles, metals, plastics and other useful discards is to say “yes” to the continued destruction of the remaining ecosystems.
This, he said, is because incineration sustains the need for further extraction of raw materials to manufacture new products.
“Think of incinerators as parasites: they suck out the life of our environment by burning its resources,” he said.
HCWH and Environmental Justice and Health Networks EcoWaste Coalition, along with Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia), which are working together for this cause, have expressed alarm on the massive increase of waste incineration proposals and contract signed in different areas in Mindanao.
The groups emphasized that once these waste burners operate, it will bring immense environmental and health problems to many marginalized communities and threaten even the island’s already critical environment.
They also hope that the LGUs will not be misled by the statistics of waste burning companies, which, according to them, hides behind high-tech sounding names like “pyrolysis”, “gasification”, “plasma arc” or “stabilat”.
Meanwhile, Representative Rufus B. Rodriguez (2nd district, Cagayan de Oro) said if the proposal is to make power out of the garbage or the so-called garbage-fired power plant, then he would favor it.
“But if not, then it has no value added and should not be accepted by the local government because it will destroy our environment, especially our air,” Rodriguez said.
