Iligan City adopts 'happy soil' system

MANILA, Philippines - After almost four years of extensive technical study and financial packaging, the City of Iligan has firmed up preparations for an efficient and long-term solution of their garbage problems.  

The city will adopt the Happy Soil systems technology offered by Lacto Asia Pacific Corp. to be installed in the completed Materials Recovery with Composting Facility (MRCF) building in a city-purchased 12-hectare property in Barangay Bonbonon, with five hectares for the MRCF and seven hectares is for an environmental and eco-park. Funding for the project was obtained from the Development Bank of the Philippines.

City Mayor Lawrence Cruz, Vice Mayor Henry Dy and Chonilo Ruiz, the city councilor assigned to head the Solid Waste Technical and Implementation Team, signed the contract with Rolando Sianghio, president of Lacto Asia Pacific. 

The systems design can handle 80 tons of garbage, either mixed or segregated, daily.  Forty tons per day is expected to be biodegradable and the facility will be producing 20 tons of commercial grade organic fertilizer daily. The facility has provisions for incoming residual waste and even medical waste, but will aggressively pursue zero waste processing for municipal waste with the participation of Holcim cement  for the plastic and residual waste. 

Holcim was granted by the Department of Science and Technology an Environmental Technology Verification certificate for their co-processing of waste technologies that can utilize ash residue as cement clinkers. 

Councilor Chonilo Ruiz, overall project officer, showed the officials that during the four-year study and validation period, the solid waste team was able to establish their organic garden planted to vegetables, fruit trees and more than 1,000 ylang-ylang trees, which are now fully flowering. There is now a vermi-composting area and a seedling nursery. The team is ready to receive visitors at the project site and the city has included this MRCF as one of the city’s tourist attractions. 

Mayor Lawrence Cruz pointed out the city’s MRCF is expected to be the most modern and complete solid waste facility solution in the Philippines. It has two large receiving, processing and sorting areas, rotary drum for one day composting, 45-day compost maturation bins, screening and bagging areas, input materials and finished goods storage areas, a motorpool and truck washing section, training rooms, visitor ramps, and administrative offices.

The facility is expected to be fully operational by December, supported by three barangay MRFs that will handle the overload garbage volumes. The intervening period from now till December will prepare the city barangays for waste segregation programs required for the successful implementation of the MRF solid waste program.