DENR exec tells LGUs to build ecoparks instead of landfills

CEBU CITY, July 5 (PNA) -– A senior official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has urged local governments in the country to build ecoparks instead of landfills or dump sites.

Gerado Calderon, DENR assistant secretary for local concerns, said another alternative is to see to the segregation of waste at the source.

”All barangays should have a material recovery facility (MRF),” he said.

Under Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, barangays are required to have MRFs that will receive mixed waste for sorting, segregation, composting and recycling.

”Through the material recovery facility, at the barangay level you are already lessening the waste,” said Calderon.

He said it was about time the public changed its perception about waste disposal as associated only with landfills.

”If we think of a sanitary landfill, then it should have a component like an ecopark,” said Calderon.

Calderon said LGUs that produce low volume of wastes may build ecoparks, landfills or dump sites.

”If the garbage they produce is not more than 50 tons of waste, they can opt to go into an ecopark,” said Calderon.

He said that at ecoparks, residual waste can be recycled into bags and other products.

”The scavengers can work as ecosorters and work in the perimeter and sort the garbage,” said Calderon.

He said that with barangays having their own MRFs, the volume of garbage brought to the ecopark will lessen.

Secretary Hermogenes Esperon Jr. of the Presidential Management Staff said the national government discourages the use of dump sites as it is the biggest source of methane emissions.

”Instead, solid waste is recycled or reused and organic waste is turned into compost. This way, we maximize the utilization of materials while we also address the problem of garbage space,” said Esperon.

Calderon said they have already issued notifications to at least 1,004 LGUs that mismanage their landfills and dump sites.

“After the first strike we have conducted a Zero Basura Caravan’ nationwide,” said Calderon.

He said that out of the 1,004 issued warnings, at least 400 LGUs have committed to stop the operations of their controlled and open dump sites.

”Two months after the first strike that we issued, we will check for their compliance,” said Calderon.