The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Friday it will construct a bio-composting facility in Mendez, Cavite, which will produce 180,000 kilograms of organic compost and bio-liquid fertilizers annually.
The DTI said in a statement that it will put up the Mendez Ecological Processing Center via its Shared Service Facility Project. The municipal government of Mendez will operate the facility.
The government said some 50 members of the Modern Farmers Association of Mendez will directly benefit from the project. It is also expected to help vegetable, fish and poultry vendors; food-service providers; 5,000 households in Mendez; and traders of organic compost and fertilizers.
“Mendez, primarily an agricultural town, is being considered for development prospects that would attract investors in leisure and entertainment, and ecotourism. Faced with the challenge, the municipal government initiated programs, among them eco-waste management to encourage farming especially to the unemployed youth,” the DTI said.
The eco-waste management program is targeting to reduce solid waste dumped and accumulated in the landfill and produce organic compost which can be a source of alternative livelihood.
The expected effort is multipronged: providing balance between economic growth and ecological stability; entrepreneurship; and creating jobs for 30 individuals mostly from the small-to-backyard farmers’ group.
With its increasing population, the DTI noted that Mendez generates 7 tons of garbage daily of which more than half is compostable. Currently, solid waste are being collected and dumped in a sanitary landfill with no processes being done aside from the segregation. The bio-composting facility will reduce 56 percent of the solid waste and convert these into affordable organic compost fertilizer.
Waste of market vendors grouped in clusters will be processed, of which 50 percent of processed products will be given back to the clusters. To a certain extent, the DTI said this will satisfy the compost needs of those with agribusiness ventures. The remaining half will be retained at the eco-processing center.
The DTI hopes that the bio-composting facility would encourage more Cavite residents to go into business.
Mayor Frederick Vida accepted the machinery and equipment from the DTI. Vida offered the lot where the building for the facility as the municipal government’s counterpart.
He said he expects the project to renew the interest of the youth in farming and to encourage more Mendez residents to practice full waste segregation.