EDITORIAL – Garbage crisis

With the nation lurching from one crisis to the next, the last thing Filipinos need is to be buried under tons of uncollected garbage. Residents of Metro Manila and parts of neighboring Rizal province had a preview of the problem when hundreds of dump truck drivers and garbage collectors went on strike the other day over a labor dispute. Authorities estimated that the strike paralyzed up to 80 percent of garbage hauling operations in three areas of Metro Manila and in Montalban, Rizal.

The strike over alleged unpaid wages and benefits can be resolved. What will be hard to tackle is a looming garbage crisis due to the lack of a sanitary landfill for the 6,000 tons of trash generated daily in the nation’s premier region. An additional 21,000 tons are recovered from waterways and drainage systems every year. The Metro Manila Development Authority is warning of a garbage crisis in two to three years unless a new sanitary landfill is opened.

The MMDA faces at least two pro-blems, the most pressing of which is the lack of funds. A sanitary landfill will cost about P500 million – no small amount for a government worried about a fiscal crisis. The other problem, as the MMDA acknowledges, is the typical "not in my backyard" attitude. MMDA officials want the new landfill to be within 150 kilometers of Metro Manila and accessible by train, which is projected to be the mode of transportation for the garbage. A landfill, as MMDA officials have pointed out, is not like the Smokey Mountain dump in Tondo, Manila. But few people are willing to have a sanitary landfill so close to their neighborhood.

As the MMDA prepares its pitch to communities that might be affected by the development of a sanitary landfill, the government must also get serious about efforts to promote waste recycling. This is the long-term answer to the growing problem of garbage. Landfills quickly outlive their usefulness. Changing attitudes about garbage disposal is going to be slow but not impossible. The nation will have to start investing in an effective trash recycling program if it wants to avert a garbage crisis.