SRP composting plan hits snag

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Councilor Margarita Osmeña has questioned the move to establish a composting facility at the South Road Properties when there are at least two private companies that offer cheap composting operation.

Osmeña said the P15 million Mansei Recycling Plant which was supposedly installed to address non-biodegradable wastes was not fully utilized.

 “Why are we putting up new composting facility at the South Road Properties? It’s fascinating that there are these things to be done that are existing and now we are establishing a composting at SRP?” Osmeña said.

Representatives of Evo Enviro Solutions and Bio Nutrient Waste Management Inc. were invited during the executive session yesterday which was aimed to look for solutions to resolve the garbage woes of the city.

Both private companies claimed that they have served the city government prior to the closure of the Inayawan Landfill on January 15. Ma. Emma Ramas of Bio Nutrient Waste Management Inc. said her company has been accepting biodegradable wastes from the city’s Carbon Market last year.

Ramas said the Department of Public Services delivered to their company around eight tons of garbage per day at P700 per ton. She said the company was not able to complete the composting of 3,500 tons of garbage under its second contract with the city government since the city closed the Inayawan Landfill in January. She said she was even told to transfer to other area.

After the closure of the landfill, City Councilor Nida Cabrera said the city government is paying P700 garbage tipping fee and P1,500 per ton for the market wastes. Cabrera said the city government could have saved thousands of pesos if it continued its contract and transaction with Bio Nutrient Waste Management Inc.

Edwin Ortiz, president of EVO Ventures Group, also appeared at the session hall and expressed that the city government used to have transaction with his Zero Waste Materials Recovery Facility in White Road Inayawan.

Ortiz said he was told to seek other area since material recovery facility will not be allowed in Cebu City now that the SRP developments have started.

“You were asked to move out, but they are now establishing a composting facility at SRP? Why do they have to start again? I do not know what to say now,” Osmeña said.

Both private companies expressed their intention to help solve the city’s garbage problem. Osmeña said the city government should make use these existing composting facilities and not to make a new one.

Osmeña asked both companies to give their proposals to the city government so that they could compare.   Amid the garbage collection problem in the city, the recycling plant in Inayawan has yet to fully operate.

Takeshi Konishi of Mansei Recycle Systems Co., a firm based in Yokohama, Japan, said the city should upscale the Mansei Recycling Plant in Barangay Inayawan. After two years of the pre-installation of the pilot project, the recycling plant only caters two tons per day when it can process five tons.

Konishi said the upscale proposal should include the segregation at the source which will necessitate segregation at the household and barangay levels. He said the segregation at the source makes the equipment organization simple and suppresses the investment cost for a materials recovery facility.

He said it has several benefits to the city government like cutting the costs for use of distant landfill use and providing training and job opportunities to plant workers.

The recycling plant accepts collected and pre-segregated waste plastic by waste pickers and from shopping malls, factories, offices, among others.

Konishi said the city can save up to P4.2 million on the new plastic recycling system compared to conventional landfilling and that cement manufacturers who buy the fuel can increase utilization of high-quality alternative fuel more.

It could have been a huge reduction of the city’s collection of garbage if this facility is being utilized, said Cabrera.

Representatives of Association of Barangay Councils, Solid Waste Management Board, Department of Public Services, Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, and Cebu Environmental Sanitation and Enforcement Team failed to show up in yesterday’s session.

The council asked them to attend to address the garbage problem of the city since the P2.8 billion Supplemental Budget-1 has been deferred because of a pending case. The SB-1 contains the P87 million garbage tipping fee.  (FREEMAN)