ITOGON, Benguet – The municipal government has been compelled to start hauling out the town’s generated residual waste to the engineered sanitary landfill in Urdaneta City, Pangasinan following the alleged closure of its temporary residual containment area (TRCA) upon orders of the environment department pursuant to existing rules and regulations.
Mayor Victorio Palangdan stated that responsible personnel of the municipal government were tasked to negotiate with the management of the landfill to ascertain the tipping fee to be paid for the disposal of the town’s residual waste in the said facility as the hauling out of the residual waste might start anytime.
He claimed the municipal government will be allocating funds for the hauling of the generated residual waste to prevent the same from piling up because of the ordered closure of the TRCA located in the boundaries of Ucab, Poblacion, Virac and Gumatdang barangays.
The municipal chief executive added his administration will continue searching for another site for its TRCA while continuing the hauling of the residual waste outside the locality as the same type of garbage must be hauled out and disposed in established sanitary landfills.
According to him, it is just unfortunate that the town’s TRCA was ordered closed by the Cordillera office of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB-CAR) after the municipal government was issued a notice of violation.
Mayor Palangdan explained the municipal government will also study what option to take in the hauling of the town’s residual waste to determine how to significantly minimise the huge expense that is expected to be spent when the same will be done by a private hauler that will be hired by the locality.
He stipulated that the hauling of the generated residual waste has been identified as the remaining option to prevent these from piling up in the different parts of the municipality and to avert the crisis in the management of the town’s garbage disposal problems.
The municipal mayor urged residents to actively participate in the proper disposal of biodegradable waste and the recycling of reusable materials to minimize the waste that will have to be hauled out of the municipality, and contribute in efforts to reduce the expenses in disposing such type of garbage.
He emphasized that one of the solutions to the municipal government’s garbage concerns is the put up of the proposed waste to energy plant to cater to the overall garbage issues within the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) area which had been prevailing since the implementation of the pertinent provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. By HENT
