MANKAYAN, Benguet – The municipal government embarked on the implementation of an innovated solid waste disposal program to comply with the provisions of Republic Act (RA) 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act leading to the approval of the town’s 10-year old waste management plan by the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC).
Mayor Materno Luspian said almost all of the local governments could not afford the put up of sanitary landfills or controlled dump facilities because of insufficient land area where the same can be erected and funds for the put up of the said waste disposal facilities, thus, the local government opted to innovate its solid waste disposal system by embracing the environmentally-friendly approach of converting biodegradable waste to high grade compost which could be used in the agricultural production.
“We personally defended our ten year solid waste management plan with the Commission presenting the innovations we introduced for residents to properly dispose their waste. We were lucky that the members of the Commission saw merit to our innovations that led to approval of our solid waste management plan” Mayor Luspian stressed.
The local chief executive pointed out that the local government established an eco-park where the town’s biodegrable waste is being dumped into the 21 cribs that were established for conversion into biodegradable waste using the environmentally-friendly technology introduced by former Loakan Liwanag punong barangay Fred Fangonon which is now actually working favourably for the municipality.
For non-biodegradable waste, Luspian explained that bottles and plastics are brought to the crushers purchased by the local government and crushed then used to add value to the construction materials used by contractors implementing various projects in the locality.
According to him, the innovations they were introduced to the town’s solid waste management system is also being emulated by other local governments inside and outside the Cordillera after their local officials and technical personnel visited their ecopark and learned from their experience.
Luspian, who is the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Benguet chapter, explained the adoption of the needed innovations to the local government’s solid waste disposal needs political will from the municipal officials coupled with strict compliance from the residents as the generated waste of households will not be collected by the town’s garbage trucks if the same are not actually segregated pursuant to the mandate of existing laws, rules and regulations.
He expressed his gratitude to the residents for their all-out cooperation to the stringent policies being imposed by the municipal government in the disposal of their waste so that the state of the town’s environment will still remain in a decent condition worthy of being passed to the present and future generations.
By HENT