Tarlac landfill seen as renewable energy hub

MANILA, Philippines — A sanitary landfilll in Capas, Tarlac will soon transition into a high-technology recycling and renewable energy generation site that aims to reduce garbage disposed in the facility by at least 70 percent.

Rufo Colayco, president and CEO of Metro Clark Waste Management Corp., said the target is to build facilities for renewable energy generation at the Clark Integrated Facility operated by MCWMC by next year, given their proposed project worth $210 million.

“Our waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities will bring our waste to the next level and help ensure that our company will be ready to accommodate the projected volume of waste to be generated by cities and municipalities in the Central and Northern Luzon regions,” Colayco said in a recent press briefing in Quezon City.

Around 100 local government units in Central Luzon are being served by the landfill. The facility started operating in December 2002.

The WTE project can reportedly accommodate close to 3,000 tons of garbage per day.

To concretize their vision, Colayco said there is a need to develop an advanced centralized recycling facility at the waste management center where materials will be segregated for recycling and processing into secondary fuel.

The secondary fuel will then be used as the primary feeds stock for a secondary fuel that will generate up to 35 megawatts of renewable electrical energy for New Clark City.

“The results will reduce the amount of the residual waste disposed at the landfill by 70 percent, extending the lifespan of the solid waste management system for at least 50 years, reducing the emission of landfill leachate and landfill gas by virtually eliminating the disposal of organic waste in the landfill,” Holger Host, MCWMC founder said.

Colayco said that MCWCM guarantees secure and sustainable waste management for Central Luzon in the next 30 years.

The development of the waste-to-energy project awaits a go-signal from the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. It will reportedly take three years to complete.

MCWMC is a joint venture of Filipino and German investors BN Ingenuire GmbH and Heers and Brockstedeth Umwelttechnik GmbH, that operates the sanitary landfill referred to as one of the high-tech waste disposal facilities in Asia on a 100-hectare site at Sitio Kalangitan in Barangay Cutcut, Capas, Tarlac.