Early in June, Baguio City once again found itself grappling with its perennial garbage disposal crisis. The city has barely recovered from the closure of its partner landfill in Capas, Tarlac, earlier this year, when yet another site in Urdaneta, Pangasinan, abruptly shut down.
The sudden closure of the Urdaneta site inevitably led to uncollected garbage piling up for days, and now, a more expensive deal with a landfill 200 kilometers away in Porac, Pampanga, has doubled our transport costs from P800 to P1,600 per ton. At this rate, the city could end up spending more than P400 million per year just to haul garbage out of the city.
This looming logistics problem is another indication of a systems failure. And the most painful part is that we’ve been here before.
The city’s waste-to-energy project was shelved last year after studies found it would do more environmental and health harm than good. That decision was the right call. But it also highlights the urgency of finding real, sustainable solutions to the city’s never-ending garbage disposal issues.
Now, more than ever, the local government must face the fact that hauling garbage away is not a long-term strategy. Besides, should dumping our waste in someone else’s “backyard,” even when it’s all paid for, be the standard?
It’s expensive, unsustainable, and ultimately futile without a systemic shift in how we manage and generate waste right here in Baguio.
Baguio’s push for sustainability, touted recently through its SDG Voluntary Local Review, is commendable. However, such public statements and symbolic milestones are insufficient.
Sustainability cannot exist in theory. It has to be lived and practiced. And to accomplish that, the city must start by making residents and businesses real partners in its waste management plans.
One major area we continue to overlook is the role of businesses in the waste cycle. Corporations, especially big ones like online retailers, are generating alarming volumes of packaging waste. Anyone who has ordered from Shopee or Lazada knows the drill: you order one or more items, and you get multiple layers of plastic.
Very few retailers in either shopping platform use sustainable packaging materials. Yet, it’s the consumer who’s left to deal with the aftermath. Why isn’t the city requiring these companies to collect, reuse, or reduce their packaging waste?
Likewise, restaurants, cafés, and food establishments must be pushed toward adopting sustainable practices. This could mean city-wide policies that encourage them to compost food waste (or even donate leftovers to animal shelters or rescuers), shift to reusable or compostable packaging, or offer incentives to customers who bring their own containers, especially when buying takeout.
Accommodation providers, including hotels, inns, and transient houses, could be required to segregate waste, eliminate single-use toiletries, minimize water use and waste, and adopt green certifications tied to their business permits.
All this, however, is unlikely to happen unless the city puts its money where its mouth is.
Barangays need training and proper equipment to enforce waste segregation. Communities need consistent education and public campaigns that explain (not just instruct) why composting matters, why refusing plastic is worth the inconvenience, and why shared responsibility begins at home.
The SDGs don’t fulfill themselves.
The city must also clarify how it plans to address the contradictions in its development goals. We can’t call ourselves a “smart and sustainable city” while continuing to approve commercial developments that flatten trees and congest already overstretched utilities.
Are we willing to halt or limit real estate expansion? Can we create a real circular economy in which manufacturers take back their waste and reuse it?
Sustainability is a buzzword that’s great for PR until it comes with hard choices.
Education, enforcement, business accountability, and infrastructure—all of these must be part of a long-term garbage solution. Baguio cannot afford to react to crises every time a landfill closes. It must stop treating garbage like an export product and start investing in localized, community-based waste management systems.
The truth is simple: We don’t need another landfill.
Actually, we need fewer landfills. And it all starts with less waste.
But for that to happen, everyone must be part of the cleanup.