Foul smell in Binaliw due to week-old trash

CEBU, Philippines — The foul odor from the 10-hectare landfill in Barangay Binaliw, Cebu City residents in the barangay are opposing is reportedly caused by trash that could not be disposed of at the landfill in Consolacion town.

This was disclosed by Sherwin Santos, president of ARN Central Waste Management, Inc., the company that runs the landfill in Binaliw.

Santos said they have accommodated the trash from private haulers this past week because the landfill in Consolacion, which is owned by Asian Energy System Corp., is closed temporarily.

Residents in the barangay are opposing the landfill, citing the foul odor emanating from the site, which they said is a health hazard.

“However, you will have to understand that the initial batch of wastes sent to us last week were a stockpile of week old garbage in their advanced decomposition stage. This was brought about by the temporary closure of the Consolacion Landfill, which caused much garbage to remain uncollected,” Santos said yesterday.

Santos said he does not know where the trash came from because the contract ARN has with the haulers is limited to disposal.

He also refused to name the private haulers.

He said they could not just reject the garbage from the private haulers because it is their objective to help neighboring towns and cities with garbage disposal.

“The landslide in Consolacion landfill is an accident nobody was prepared for. That caused practically all haulers to stop operation; thus situation created a five day stockpile of rotting garbage which did stink. Our company is working hard to help both private and public LGUs alike alleviate this problem,” Santos said.

He said that to eliminate the stench from the landfill, they have doubled the dosage of spraying deodorizer every day. The exact amount of deodorizer depends on the amount of trash dumped at the landfill.

“Our operation is applying various methods that will ensure proper and complaint waste disposal. We apply neutralizing agents to eliminate odor generation as well as physical methods like stratified disposition. These methods have proven to be effective,” Santos said.

Aside from the deodorizer, ARN has a Material Recovery Facility that can process up to 90 percent of the trash.

An average of 700 tons of trash is dumped at the Binaliw landfill per day. The landfill facility can accommodate up to 3,000 tons of trash.

“The heart of the facility is the Material Recovery Plant. It has an integrated sorting facility and processing units that will reduce the amount of waste being deposited to the engineered sanitary landfill by as much as 80 percent to 90 percent. And since these materials are processed, they rendered environmentally neutral (no smell),” Santos said.

In a separate interview, Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office head Ma. Nida Cabrera said her office will inspect the landfill to check the real condition of the facility.

It was CCENRO that allowed ARN to accept private haulers for solid waste disposal.

“Tungod sa problema sa Consolacion, murag ang Mandaue nagtemporary og dispose diha sa ARN, wala pasad ko kibaw sa kontrata. So naa’y reklamo, ang opisina sa CCENRO, among icheckup aron tan-awn ang sitwasyon gyud,” Cabrera said. (FREEMAN)