THE chief of the Cagayan de Oro City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) said waste segregation at the barangays need to be strengthened even if the city’s opening of a new engineered sanitary landfill was hailed.
Edwin Dael said the garbage dumped in the new landfill in Barangay Pagalungan is still “mixed wastes,” and not the supposed “residual wastes” required by law.
The city generates 560 tons of garbage per day but only the 360 tons should be dumped in the landfill since some 200 tons are deposited in junk shops or in village Material Recovery Facilities (MRF).
Dael said only 23 percent of the 360 tons garbage generation per day, should be dumped in the new landfill.
These residual wastes should be non-recyclable materials.
If the barangays do not practice waste segregation, Dael said the one hectare initially opened in Barangay Pagalungan will likely be full for about six months to one year, and will not reach the expected two to three years.
With this, the Clenro has issued an ultimatum to barangay officials, pointing out that staring May 15, the city will not collect and accept wastes that are not segregated, otherwise, they will face raps which will be filed by the National Solid Waste Management Commission.
Dael, however, admitted that the barangays’ compliance is slow and weak.
“Ang amo gyud obserbahan kung feasible ba gyud, unsay plano sa barangays, unsaon nila pag-enforce, kung paggtan-aw nato nga majority na ang ga-comply, ang the rest ana, dili na gyud nato dawaton ilang basura (We will first observe if their plans are feasible, how they would enforce it, and if we observe that majority are complying then we will start not accepting those barangays that are still not practicing the waste segregation),” he said.
“Pero kung ang ga-comply gamay pa gyud, mabalaka sad ta kung dili nato dawaton kay basin bisan asa lang unya nila ipanglabay (But if we still observe weak compliance, we don't know because we will worry that if we do not collect their garbage they might throw it anywhere,” he added.
