BAGUIO City is currently waiting for the Urdaneta engineered sanitary landfill (ESL) to reopen after its rehabilitation to achieve for the city a “significant” reduction in the cost of waste disposal.
City General Services Officer Eugene Buyucan said the city government will go back to hauling the city’s residual waste to the Urdaneta ESL once the cease and desist order by the Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) is lifted.
The Urdaneta ESL was previously closed down in 2021 by the DENR-EMB for violations, which led to Baguio partnering with Metro Clark Waste Management for the disposal of the city’s garbage to the company’s ESL located in Clark Special Economic Zone, Capas, Tarlac.
Currently, the cost of transporting and disposing of the city’s waste in Tarlac is P141,335,300 annually, compared to the estimate of transporting to Urdaneta which is pegged at P96,188,450, saving the city some P45 million.
The budget for the transport and disposal of the city’s garbage in 2023 is P130 million, allowing the city to save some P33.8 million once the Urdaneta ESL is back in operation.
