A MEMBER of the House of Representatives on Monday urged Congress to end its ban on incinerator plants amid the looming closure of the Payatas dumpsite in Quezon City.
Waste incinerators are banned under the Philippine Clean Air Act and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
Samar Representative Edgar Mary Sarmiento said Metro Manila would have a garbage crisis in five years time unless Congress decides to amend the said laws to impose a mandatory waste segregation and allow the use of state-of-the-art "waste-to-energy" incineration plants.
Sarmiento said that the Payatas dumpsite is expected to reach its capacity limit by December this year.
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) estimates that it could be utilized until the year 2021.
Other sanitary landfills in Metro Manila, such as the Navotas Sanitary Land Fill and the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfills are also nearing critical capacity, said Sarmiento.
The lawmaker said the expected closure of the Payatas dumpsite would mean an estimated 2,700 metric tons of solid wastes that need to be dumped elsewhere every day.
Metro Manila generates at least 8,400 to 8,600 metric tons of garbage every day some 2,700 tons of it are being dumped to Payatas.
Sarmiento said that Metro Manila's garbage problem should already prompt Congress to impose stricter penalties against unsegregated waste disposal and litterbugs.
He also said that Congress should take a look at the more advanced incinerators that converts wastes to energy, and could eventually bring down electricity cost.
"We will be able to dispose our garbage without destroying our water table and at the same create power plants that can supply us with cheap electricity," Sarmiento said. (VoxPop Philippines)
