Exec wants residents to see facility:Attacks versus landf ill assailed

CEBU, Philippines — Allegations that their landfill in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City is what emits foul odor and attracts flies to the barangay are unfair, the chief of ARN Central Waste Management, Inc. told The Freeman.

ARN President and Executive Director Sherwin Santos said they will not spend P1 billion for a Material Recovery Facility and Engineered Sanitary Landfill project just to harm the environment and mislead the residents of Binaliw.

During The Freeman’s visit to the landfill, Santos showed two pits that form part of the 15-hectare property.

“The reason why we are inviting a lot of people and interest groups to the facility is because we want them to see the level of expertise and compliance that we do.

We hope that in their visit, we will be able to bring justice to the project. Sometimes, with all the sacrifices we’ve done so far, we feel underappreciated,” he said.

He said that while there are swarms of flies there as residents have complained of, the presence of the flies is not necessarily because of the landfill. He said the fruit bearing season can also be a reason.

“The thing is, for you to establish an increase of vector population, there must be a reference point. You can’t do random sampling. We have flies here. There are times that all of them are gone. It’s the environmental thing. There are flies that would infest because of the fruit bearing season,” he said.

Foul Odor

Santos said there is, indeed, stench that comes from the garbage being hauled into the landfill, something that they themselves are concerned about because this means that the garbage is not being treated.

He also pointed out that some residents living near the landfill are raising pigs, which also emit foul odor.

“These people might take the opportunity to take the blame on us. Our point is, if the smell being generated is not as pungent as here, how did the smell find its way there?” he said.

Santos said they will ask the Environmental Management Bureau-7 to direct all private haulers and local government units to treat and spray their garbage before hauling the same to the landfill in Binaliw so that residents will not be inconvenienced by the stench.

He said the landfill was supposed to start operating on July 1 yet but the management decided on “emergency operations” after the private landfill in Consolacion where Cebu City dumps its trash was ordered closed owing to environmental violations.

The landfill in Binaliw is now accommodating garbage from Cebu City, Mandaue City, Lilo-an, Compostela, and Cordova.

He said the facility is receiving at least 300 tons and up to 500 tons of garbage every day. To eliminate the foul smell, the company reportedly spends at least P120 million a day for neutralizing and disinfecting.

“We have to advance our timeline of the project because of the emergency situation that took place. This is an emergency operation. They are bombarding us as if this is the normal. So I think, it’s a bit unfair and ridiculous,” Santos said.

Project Details

Santos denied allegations that ARN Central Waste Management, Inc. is misleading residents for allegedly failing to disclose the details of the project.

He said the project has three components – the engineered sanitary landfill component, the MRF and treatment component, and the waste-to-energy component.

The first and second components will cost them over P1 billion while the WTE facility will require P6 billion.

Once fully operational, the facility is designed to receive 3,000 tons of garbage a day but for efficiency purposes and so as not to overload the system, the management had decided to limit the capacity to 1,500 tons of garbage a day.

Engineered Landfill

Since accepting garbage from different local government units, the landfill has reportedly compacted at least 10,000 tons of garbage delivered by at least 100 trucks.

While the MRF is being constructed, Santos said the company is implementing an engineered landfill, which means a pit is filled with layers of solid waste and is compacted and covered for final disposal.

“Every MRF should have its own landfill facility. In material recovery facility, you practically take out the recyclables that you can use like the metals, aluminums, bottles, plastics, and anything that you can recover. So what remains in the conveyor line are what we call the residual wastes like the small cellophanes, small papers that you can no longer recycle,” he said.

Ideally speaking, residual wastes are put into a machine with very high temperature, which turns them into char but since the landfill in Consolacion was closed and they started accepting huge volumes of trash, they were forced to put all kinds of wastes in their engineered sanitary landfill.

Santos assured they remove the recyclables first but the residual wastes are practically put in the engineered sanitary landfill.

“As soon as the trucks would come in, the waste materials will be deposited in a tipping floor is the proximal part of the engineered sanitary landfill. The tipping floor is where people remove the recyclables. What’s left of it is pushed into the pit and at a one meter take, these are compacted with compactor,” he said.

Santos said that once the MRF is fully operational months from now, they will dig and harvest the compacted waste and process it in the facility.  Black liners have also been put in place to prevent leachate from penetrating into the soil.

Santos said the facility is sustainable as they treat the fluid from the leachate pond to a clean water pond, which will undergo several treatments like the oxidation process, among other filtrations.

“We don’t even have connection from MCWD. We recycle our water for the condensers, machines, and trucks. Why? Because we design it for sustainable environmental protection,” he said, adding, they are the first facility that uses advanced technology in solid waste management.

Santos said he will invite residents of Binaliw to visit the landfill so they can see the innovations there.

He said that should the company be closed, as what residents in Binaliw want to happen, there is no other landfill accessible to the northern towns of Cebu that can accommodate garbage from these towns.

Complainants

The 222 residents living near the area have said the foul odor, increase of vectors, and other environmental and health issues are caused by the operation of the facility, which doesn’t have a fully functional MRF that would processed the trash at present.

These residents relocated to Binaliw from Barangays Apas, Mabolo, and T. Padilla three years ago.

Rosalinda Leogan, Sta. Ana relocation site president, told The FREEMAN that the Environmental Management Bureau-7 should shut the facility down temporarily until the MRF will be fully operational.

She said they started airing their concerns out even before the May 13 elections.

Another settler, Jefferson Umandam, alleged that the ARN Central Waste Management Inc. did not call them to a public hearing.

He said they thought that only an MRF will be established and not a sanitary landfill.

He expressed his disappointment over Binaliw Captain Vivian Ruste and EMB-7 for issuing clearances to the company.

“Properly ba ang paghatag og clearance? Duna ba’y public hearing nga ang mga tawo ni-vote sa pag-install diha? Wala kibaw. There is a public hearing…moro-moro lang just to comply, sa tinood lang, wala’y klaro (Were the granting of the clearance proper? Was there a public hearing about it? There was a hearing but it was not done properly…it was done for compliance),” Umandam said.

Binaliw councilwoman Sante Cabrera said they told Ruste about the problem but Ruste reportedly insists that ARN is managing the trash properly.

Last Monday, the council of Binaliw filed a formal complaint before EMB-7 against the landfill, citing intolerable odor, reported increase of upper respiratory illness, misinterpretation of the utilization of the facility from MRF to sanitary landfill, and the non-issuance of the cease and desist order.

Six barangay officials signed the complaint, including Cabrera, Daisy Ybañez, Ronald Mingo, Renato Seno Sr., Edmund Biaño, and Sangguniang Kabataan chairperson Kissy Amour Bacor.

Signatures of hundreds of residents were also attached to the complaint.

Cabrera said the residents participated in the signature campaign voluntarily and now are eyeing at legal charges against Ruste.

The FREEMAN tried but could not reach Ruste yesterday.

Cabrera said ARN told them that they will establish a waste to energy facility that would process the trash and other machineries to prevent bad odor. —  JMO (FREEMAN)