Every household, business establishment, public offices and institutions, and private organizations in will self-manage their own garbage in the absence of a designated dumping site.
Senate Economic Planning Office (SEPO) in 2017 revealed that the Philippines waste generation continues to rise with the increase in population, rapid economic growth, and industrialization. The SEPO calculated that from 37,427.46 tons per day in 2012, it has increased to 40,087.45 tons in 2016.
In the Municipality of Sagada, the study on Waste Analysis and Characterization by the Municipal Solid Waste Management Office (MSWMO) 2017 also found out that business establishments, institutions, and health facilities generate a total of 1,916.3 kg of per day in Sagada. The highest contributor of waste is from the households with 92.6% from the total municipal wastes.
On the other hand, non-households contributes 7.4% of the total municipal wastes, 4.8% from business establishments, 1.8% from the public office and institutions, and 0.8% from the industries being the least percentage.
“The biodegradable wastes are fed to the pigs or pets or are composted by putting it under fruit trees and garbage pits to decompose,” said April Castro, focal person on solid waste management of Sagada.
Further, she added that recyclable items are commonly sold to two junkshops in Sagada. However, segregation of garbage is “not commonly practiced because some areas are not accessible to the garbage truck and ended up burning their own garbage.”
With this, to help the solid waste management in Sagada, every barangay is conducting clean-up drives quarterly by the initiatives of Barangay LGU in cooperation of Sanguniang Kabataan (SK). Every household, on the other hand, cleans their backyards through the “Batog mo, Linis mo” policy.
Barangay Dagdag is the only barangay that has a regular schedule of garbage collection hauled by the Material Recovery Facility (MRF) personnel for processing every Mondays from 8:00 to 9:00 am.
The Material Recovery Facility (MRF) has two workers hired by the Municipal LGU to sort wastes and haul from the municipal offices, market, and some business establishments in the central barangays every Saturday.
Edward Eyban, barangay captain of Barangay Dagdag, said that burning of garbage from different establishment is one of the most recorded violation because some establishments are not reached by the garbage truck.
With the cooperation of Community Social Development Team (CSDT) which includes Barangay officials, Barangay Health Workers, and People’s Organization, they are tasked to monitor proper garbage management in the community. CSDT sets a date to roam around to check if there are garbage pit every household, reminding them on proper waste segregation, and warning them on burning of garbage.
Further, Sagada has various policies regarding waste management. As such, are the Municipal Ordinance No. 01-2003 regulating proper waste disposal in the community reinforced by the Municipal Ordinance No. 04-2015 prohibiting the selling and packaging of plastic bags and styrofoams.
The prior ordinance prohibits the burning of non-biodegradable wastes, such as dumping of garbage in any place other than the established garbage facilities.
It is also required that plastic, cellophane, glass, and other non-biodegradable wastes must be cleaned before disposal. Further, biodegradable wastes such as food scrap or leftovers, paper (tissue and other wet papers), and dried weeds must be disposed in garbage pits constructed by every household.
Violators of the said ordinance may be faced with corresponding penalties: P 500 for the first offense; P 1,000 second offense; and P1,000 with imprisonment of not less than 10 days for the third offense.
Castro added that Sagada promotes waste segregation, reduction, recovery and recycling to transform waste into marketable products.
She added that they have coordinated with the community to produce products out of garbage like rugs out of old clothes, shredded plastic wrappers for pillows, bricks (mixture of crushed bottles, plastics, and gravel) and other reusable garbage for decorations. These are being shown in exhibits, sold during festivals and some are contributed to environment-related contests.
“Everyone should be responsible for their own garbage to have a clean and safer community,” Eyban ended.
By Lea Miriam
