BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) advised local governments units throughout the region to carefully study various waste to energy proposals being submitted by interested proponents to ensure that such projects are feasible and environmentally-friendly.
EMB-CAR regional technical director Jean Borromeo pointed out that local governments must first look into the sustainability of providing the feedstock that will allow the operation of the proposed waste to energy facilities within their respective areas of jurisdiction.
She claimed that only residual waste will be allowed to be used as feedstock for the proposed waste to energy plants where only 30 percent of the generated waste in a locality is classified as residual, thus, the need for local governments to look for strategies on how to provide the minimum feedstock and sustain the daily requirement to allow the continuous operation of the said plants.
The EMB-CAR official said that it will not be practical if the waste to energy plants that will be established will not be operating continuously because of the absence of sufficient volume of feedstock which will not be economically feasible for investors.
According to her, another consideration that should be studied by the local governments is the emission of the proposed waste to energy plants where it must conform with the prescribed standards pursuant to the pertinent provisions of the Clean Air Act to avoid pollution that will impact on the health of the people and the state of the environment in the areas where the plants will be constructed.
For the past several years, various proponents for the construction of waste to energy plants have been submitting their respective proposals to put up said renewable energy plants to help in providing sufficient sources of clean energy that will help in preserving and protecting the environment and mitigate the effects of climate change.
For his part, Engr. Paquito Moreno, regional director of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR-CAR), asserted that the agency strongly supports the put up of renewable plants because it uses clean sources of energy such as solar, hydro, wind and geothermal that produces least emissions that are beneficial in preserving and protecting the environment.
He said that the Cordillera is one of the potential sources of renewable energy because of its available vast resources that will make it a producer of renewable energy in the future.
The government is embarking on the increase of renewable energy sources that will contribute in providing a blended source of energy in the various parts of the country that will lead to reduced dependence on fossil fuel as the main source of power in the archipelago. By Dexter A. See
