
NOT all collected garbage ends up being dumped at the government-sanctioned engineered sanitary landfill. In the town regarded as the Art Capital of the Philippines, a significant chunk of its garbage is used as fuel.
According to Mayor Jeri Mae Calderon, the lakeshore town of Angono generates an estimated 1,380 tons of garbage on a monthly basis – or an equivalent expenditure amounting to roughly P3.84 million.
However, since the local government started operating its Residual Containment Facility (RCF), the local government gets to save the cost of hauling 34.160 tons of locally-sourced garbage to the government-designated engineered landfill in Morong town.
Based on records, the municipal government is spending P16,000 for every truckload of garbage brought to the Morong landfill.
“We are transporting at least eight truckloads of garbage per day and we get to spend P16,000 for each truck,” said Alan Bitong Maniaol in his capacity as Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MERO) acting chief.
He emphasized that the local government’s solid waste management however is not limited to garbage collection, even as Maniaol claimed that the 34.160 tons of garbage that they are collecting on a monthly basis are mostly residual wastes which are being fetched by the Geocycle of Holcim from their RCF.
Using modern-day technology called Refused Derived Fuel (RDF) Geocycle / Holcim, transforms the residual waste into fuel which they are using in manufacturing cement.
Other forms of garbage are either reused or recycled, he further averred.
“What we are about to save under this arrangement will ultimately be used in other local government projects and programs seen to make life a bit easier for our residents.”