WHILE it may be entertaining for many people to indulge in a bit of mudslinging as the 2016 elections loom, a crisis is about to explode in our midst.
You guessed it: Trash.
Based on the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) solid-waste management data for the first half of the year, the agency had disposed 26,776.93 cubic meters of solid waste daily, or 9,773,580.78 cubic meters per year.
A Philippines Graphic magazine report on the subject says “this was equivalent to 55 percent of the estimated waste [that] generated 43,491.39 cubic meters per day.”
“For the period of January to June this year, the agency was able to increase by 12 percent the actual volume disposed to 26,838.37 cubic meters per day,” it adds.
The data were culled as part of the MMDA’s compliance with the environmental standards for the operation of dumpsites and landfills provided for under Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
As for the Navotas-Tanza landfill and the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill, which serve 17 local government units in Metro Manila, there are still six years’ worth of space left.
For the Quezon City sanitary landfill, however, a serious problem looms. The MMDA data show that it has an initial space of 3 hectares that are capable of accommodating 6,570,000 cubic meters of solid waste for three years. This is crucial, because Quezon City has the largest land area in Metro Manila and, thus, has one of the highest trash-generation rates in any city.
The report also says, “Based on the data of the Solid Waste Management Office of the MMDA, this landfill has only 89,107 cubic meters of space left, or 1.4 percent of its initial capacity. However, there is a plan to expand the Quezon City sanitary landfill’s space by 4 hectares, which will give it an additional capacity to accommodate solid waste for an estimated four to five years.”
Additional data show that the 292,217-square-meter Quezon City landfill has an estimated 31,422 sq m of space left. This means that the city’s landfill is “computed to reach full capacity by March 2015.”
March 2015—that’s a few months from now. If, by any chance, the city acquires additional hectares for the dumping of the city’s garbage, then all will be well. However, it would do us well to remember that four to five years of extended capacity for landfills and dumpsites are a mere blink of an eye.
There must be a way to improve our waste-management strategy for the long haul, outside of the commonplace strategies that local governments are currently employing.
Waste management needs the cooperation of all—private individuals, corporations included. And the government should refrain from making it difficult for private corporations to invest in state-of-the-art engineered sanitary landfills.
The problem has reached such proportions that the government must now seek the help of private corporations. The investment is, no doubt, worthwhile.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano