Exactly five months ago today, I wrote Is It About Time We Consider Using the Incinerator? also for this blog. I wrote that article because I was so aghast seeing the mounds of garbage that lined up Retiro Avenue in Quezon City on my way to the clinic of my dermatologist. Nearby residents had piled plastics of garbage along the avenue for easy collection by the city garbage collector. We are a very hygienic people in terms of our own bodies but quite the opposite with our trash.
Yesterday, the Philippine Daily Inquirer featured MMDA Favors Burning of Trash, an article about the plans of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) of using incinerators in solving once and for all the pestering problem on garbage. The problem on garbage disposal has been in the news lately because of last month's trash slide in Baguio City triggered by heavy rains of typhoon Mina that killed several people and buried houses at the same time. People and houses getting killed and buried by the avalanche of garbage will not stop if there are sanitary landfills.
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| The trash slide at Baguio City at the height of typhoon Mina. |
The environmental group, Ecowaste Coalition reacted negatively on MMDA's plans on making incineration the preferred solution to the age old problem of garbage disposal. Paeng Lopez of the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, a non government organization under Ecowaste Coalition, in an interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer said that "large scale" solutions like incineration will not work. Incinerators emit dioxins and furans that are harmful to health even at small doses. Mr. Lopez' group is espousing waste segregation as the best solution to our garbage woes which at the same time fertilizes the soil through composting.
Though the concept of waste segregation sounds ideal, it is not the best solution to the problem of waste disposal for an urban community like Metro Manila. For one, waste segregation requires land space for composting of the biodegradable waste. We all know that land prices in Metro Manila and other urban centers are prohibitive. Look outside and residential buildings, whether for condominiums, apartments and townhouses, are sprouting everywhere. This new style of housing does not come with land space that could be used for composting. Composting may work in the provinces where land is sprawling and available but not in the urban centers.
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| Waste segregation bins |
The sheer volume of garbage in Metro Manila is no joke. According to Sec. Ramon Paje of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), garbage from Metro Manila accounts for 25% of the total garbage. If the trash will not be burned, the sanitary landfills will fill up sooner than we think.
The third reason why incineration is the best solution for Metro Manila and other urban centers is that space for sanitary landfills are getting scarcer by the day. Communities living near proposed landfills express their opposition to such plans. Living near sanitary landfills are also not safe for the health of the people and the pollution of the air, water and soil that comes with it. It is difficult to contain dangerous chemicals from seeping into the land and water system. Landfills produce methane that is bad for the environment as it increases global warming.
Waste segregation requires the cooperation of a big majority of people for it to work. If the households in Metro Manila which account for a big chunk of the garbage can't practice composting because of the lack of space to do it, waste segregation will not fly. For the rest of the Philippines, waste segregation is it.
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