SP okays MOA on plastic garbage
The city council here has authorized Mayor Jerry P. Treñas to sign a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with Holcim Corp., calling for the shipment of 100 metric tons of plastic garbage taken from the city's dumpsite to be used as fuel of Holcim cement plant in Lugait, Iligan City, Mindanao.
The authority was given in last Wednesday's SP regular session while the MOA was approved by the Solid Waste Management Board (SWMB) and the Solid Waste Management for Local Government Units project assisted by the German-funded GTZ.
City councilor Eldrid Antiquerra, chairman of the committee on environment and main proponent of the agreement's committee report, said the project will have a test period of 100 days partnership in shipping out the plastic garbage taken out from the old dumpsite at Brgy. Calajunan, Mandurriao district.
Earlier, Treñas disclosed that a pre-test run conducted last April was able to send 20 metric tons of plastic garbage to Holcim in Iligan and tested as the factory's fuel in cement manufacturing. The test run was successful and Holcim Cement plant eyes Iloilo City's plastic garbage as important alternative fuel.
Representatives of Holcim Phil. paid a visit here last March to talk about possible cooperation and partnership on the elimination of plastic garbage at the city dumpsite. The Holcim team was headed by Ernesto C. Paredes, head of the Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials, and Ma. Rosario Chan, AVP-Technology Manager of the Alternative Fuels and Raw Materials.
GTZ, on the other hand, represented by Dr. Johannes Paul, will be spending for the expenses incurred in taking out the garbage from Calajunan. GTZ is helping the city government in its solid waste disposal management and in the conversion of the 23-hectare dumpsite into a sanitary landfill.
The city dumpsite is receiving some 150 to 170 metric tons of garbage everyday collected from public markets, shopping malls and residences here. Plastic wastes are made up of more than 50 percent of the collected garbage.
The project is expected to minimize the volume of collected garbage at Calajunan as the city is preparing to enforce the rehabilitation and closure plan of the old dumpsite in preparation for full implementation of a sanitary landfill in the area.
The plan includes the covering of some three hectares of cleared dumpsite area with soil taken from the Iloilo flood control project site in Jaro and will be developed like rice terraces planted to trees and flowers expected to become later as an eco-tourism park.
The city government has already constructed a perimeter fence around the dumpsite area and acquired an assistance loan of P90-million from the World Bank to buy heavy equipment such as two units of dumptruck and one unit of backhoe excavator.
It is also planning to buy two units of bulldozer compactor and a weighbridge. (PNA)