BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Mauricio G. Domogan lauded the energy department for endorsing and supporting the local government’s proposed integrated solid waste disposal facility project within the property of Benguet Corporation (BC) in nearby Itogon, Benguet as this will significantly increase the supply of renewable energy and help reduce the power cost charged to consumers.
Energy Undersecretary Benito Ranque informed the local chief executive during the opening program of the 3-day Seminar-Workshop on Mainstreaming Energy Efficiency and Conservation to Local Governments that numerous waste-to-energy proponents visited the energy department regarding their plan to put up waste-to-energy projects in the city using various technologies.
Domogan claimed the support being shown by concerned government agencies to the desire of the local government to find a permanent solution to its garbage disposal problem and produce sufficient renewable energy indicates the unified position of both the national and local governments to maximize the potentials of garbage to produce renewable energy.
“We need to have a common position on how to find the appropriate solutions to our garbage disposal concerns. We are happy the energy department shares our position that we need to have a waste-to-energy plant to convert our garbage to sufficient renewable energy to help lower the cost of power to city residents,” Domogan stressed.
By producing renewable energy from garbage, Undersecretary Ranque pointed out that local governments can contribute to efforts in reducing the cost of power in their places from environmentally-friendly waste-to-energy projects so that no solid waste will be unnecessarily dumped into creeks and other bodies of water.
The local government is embarking on the put up of an integrated solid waste disposal facility within the BC property in Itogon, Benguet to substantially address its garbage disposal concerns with the view it will be a permanent solution to the decades-old search for solutions to appropriately dispose the city’s generated waste.
The project involves the put up of a centralized materials recovery facility, an anaerobic digester, a hazardous waste, special waste and medical waste treatment plants aside from hosting the operation of the two Environmental Recycling System (ERS) machines converting biodegradable waste to raw compost.
Domogan emphasized the proposed integrated solid waste disposal facility is also envisioned to put an end to the hauling of the city’s residual waste outside the city that has eaten up a huge chunk of the local government’s annual budget but if the put up of the facility will not be realized, hauling of the residual waste will still remain as the doable option to prevent a garbage crisis in the city.
For over a decade now, the city government has been hauling out its residual waste to the lowland sanitary landfills through a private hauler.
By Dexter A. See
