MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government will soon be mandating barangays, offices of the municipal government and government instrumentalities providing services in the municipality to minimize the use of single use plastic by patronizing local products in the provision of snacks and meals for participants of meetings, conferences, seminars and other public gatherings in the locality.
Mayor Frenzel Ayong said that it is appropriate that the municipal government will take the lead in the implementation of effective and efficient solid waste management by leading in the generation of biodegradable waste which could be appropriately disposed in the established eco park.
In case the use of plastic cannot be avoided, he pointed out that single use plastic is not recommended to prevent the generation of non-biodegradable waste that will contribute in the production of unnecessary waste that will be an added burden to the municipal government.
The local chief executive also encouraged the town’s private sector to comply with the new mandate of the municipal government considering that effective and efficient solid waste management is a shared responsibility of the government and the people.
Earlier, a number of local governments have reportedly used the Mankayan eco park and materials recovery facility and the Lepanto engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) in the municipality which could be possibly replicated in other areas not only in the cordillera but also in the different parts of the Ilocos region.
According to him, barangays and government offices must make sure that their generated waste during seminars, meetings, conferences, consultations and other public gatherings will be biodegradable so that the same will be converted into compost fertilizer which will be used by the farmers in the agriculture-producing areas to raise their agricultural produce and to make the municipality a major producer of quality organic crops that command a higher buying price in the market.
Ayong urged the public to fully cooperate with the initiative in solid waste management that will be spearheaded by the barangay and municipal governments so that Mankayan will be able to show to the other municipalities that proper solid waste management will result to better living condition of the people in the different barangays of the locality.
He expressed his gratitude to the local governments that decided to benchmark the town’s eco park and Lepanto’s landfill because it only shows that with the cooperation of the local officials and the residents, many things could be achieved that will translate to better working and living conditions in the different parts of the municipality, especially for the benefit of the present and future generation of inhabitants.
Mankayan is considered to be one of the fastest growing municipalities in the province because of its proximity to the lowlands and other provinces in the cordillera, Ilocos and the Cagayan Valley regions which are also developing in pace similar to the growth of the locality over the past several years.
By Hent
