Manila garbage woes ease with recycling

Manila garbage woes ease with recycling

By John Grafilo

MANILA (DPA): Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo walked out of a garbage summit in February as government officials and representatives of non-government organizations bickered over how to solve Manila's worsening waste problem.

The move spread a sense of hopelessness among the 11.5 million residents of the Philippine capital, where mounds of rotting trash have piled up in every street corner and open space since a major dumpsite closed at the end of last year.

Health officials warned of an outbreak of diseases as tons of garbage were uncollected, while the unsightly and smelly problem was also fast becoming a turn-off for foreign tourists and even investors.

But the grim prospect is slowly turning around as the government takes on a new tack in resolving the age-old garbage problem by promoting segregation, composting and recycling instead of looking for a dumpsite.

The government had planned to open a new landfill in the central Semirara island after the San Mateo dump in Rizal province, which was the receptable of most of the 6,000-ton daily refuse generated by Manila, was closed down in December 2000.

But the "alternative" failed due to opposition from residents of Semirara, near Boracay island, a tourist attraction famous for its white-sand beaches.

Despite the lack of a new landfill area, trash piles on Manila's streets have been greatly reduced and residents are no longer complaining about smelly homes due to uncollected garbage.

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), which manages the capital's waste problem, attributed the containment of the crisis to intensified promotion of waste reduction and self-reliance by local governments.

MMDA chairman Benjamin Abalos said at least six key cities in Manila have launched waste reduction programs, which include the development of composting facilities.

He also noted that homeowners' associations in middle-class and posh subdivisions have undertaken community composting and recycling projects.

"The long-term plan is to use former landfill sites for composting activities," Abalos said.

He added the MMDA is also looking at other technologies endorsed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, where in non-recyclable solid wastes are pulverized and decontaminated through an electrochemical process.

Odette Alcantara, leader of the Manila-based environment protection group Mother Earth Unlimited, expressed satisfaction with the way the Arroyo administration has been handling the garbage problem.

"While there is still much to be desired in government- initiated composting centers, at least the policy on segregation, composting and recycling is now clear," she said.

Alcantara, whose group has been providing training on small- scale waste management, also noted that many Filipino families now compost and recycle their garbage and more communities are seeking Mother Earth's advice on how to reduce trash that must be thrown out.

"The crisis was a blessing in disguise since Filipinos were forced to look for ways to properly disposed of their garbage," she said in an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur.

Alcantara noted that 80 percent of Manila's wastes can actually be composted or recycled.

Francis de la Cruz, a Greenpeace toxics campaigner, said aside from being environment-friendly, recycling and composting can also be very helpful in providing livelihood, especially to the metropolis' impoverished residents.

He noted that the country's nascent recycling industry, which tap only 1 percent of the 80 percent recyclable component of the local garbage, already generates 1 billion pesos (US$20.4 million) annually.

The industry employs 40,000 to 50,000 people, including itinerant street scavengers who scour the piles of garbage before they are collected by contractors.

While Greenpeace acknowledges the government's progress in resolving the garbage problem, de la Cruz warned the present respite may only be temporary and cautioned the MMDA against centralizing garbage disposal.

"The government has so far succeeded in moving the trash out of the streets," he said. "But I hope the government would really get serious in decentralizing garbage disposal. Composting and recycling, to be effective, should be done in the community level."