Landfill management adopts measures to address concerns

CEBU, Philippines — Sanitary measures have been adopted by the management of the controversial Binaliw Landfill to address complaints from the residents of foul stench coming from the garbage trucks and other environmental concerns.

Sherwin Santos, president and executive director of ARN Central Waste Management Inc., said the company is improving its handling of the garbage.  He said they are fast-tracking the construction of the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) that would process 80 to 90 percent of the trash every day. Santos said they expect the facility to be fully operational by July 1.

According to Santos, the management is doing measures to eliminate the foul odor even if it does not come from the facility itself. He said that the stench came from the trucks hauling garbage from the different barangays in Cebu City and neighboring areas.

To address the problem, Santos said, all garbage trucks would be washed before they are allowed to exit the facility.

ARN vice president for operations Florentino Renz Soriano also said that as soon as the garbage truck enters the facility, it will go directly to the weighing bridge then dump the waste into a pit.

"May naamoy tayo siguro pag may bagong dumating na waste, the moment they dump the trash we make sure that we neutralized the smell of the trash,” he said.

 A neutralizer is sprayed immediately into the pit where garbage is deposited before it is covered by soil.

"Only residual waste in the form of neutralized ash or soil will be deposited in the landfill facility,” Santos said.

According to him, the other components like sludge generated by the anaerobic digester would be converted to organic fertilizer.

The Binaliw Landfill is processing garbage from private haulers and from Mandaue City. It would also start processing garbage from Cebu City starting July until December.

"There would be a collaboration and partnership between the baranggay and other facilities and our company to work hand in hand in ensuring that the environmental policies and the guidelines are implemented by the haulers" Santos said. — Ma. Mae C. Labora, CNU Intern FPL (FREEMAN)