Where does the city go now, with so many roadblocks in its path to environmental sustainability? The landfill Baguio is shipping its waste to is closing, which means the costs of getting rid of waste is going to go up. The costs are already exorbitant, nine figures a year, a significant chunk of our budget, our taxpayers’ money.
Not only that, but the ambitious dream of a waste-to-energy power plant to consume our garbage and churn out leccy has gone up in smoke with the declaration that the plan will no longer be pursued in the name of preserving the environment.
So we are facing the possibility of worsening garbage disposal problems amid increasing output because of a growing population and more consumption. A matter this city has grappled with since day one.
What, then, is the path forward?
For the city, the plan is to have a centralized materials recovery facility or MRF to cut down on the overall garbage output by taking out the recyclable portion of the garbage output. Schemes are being studied to figure out where the biodegradables will go as well.
Still, this is one of the few city-level problems that we, as individuals without power, actually do have the power to influence. We can, and should indeed, act on this matter. Exercise that little modicum of input for the betterment of all.
The basics here is the obvious segregation move — know your waste types, recycle what can be recycled, compost what can be composted for value, and that alone cuts down the waste output overall.
This is a fairly simple act, and it can be done without having to wait for the city to mandate it. All it takes is a little bit of conscious effort once a week when garbage disposal comes around. Sure, the actual profit of selling recyclables to the local MRF is low, but the cost is even more miniscule and the benefits are far-reaching and wide.
A single household cutting down on overall waste output will have minimal impact, but this is a community effort — waste not, want not — and the more of this basic waste management we do as individuals, on paper, this would translate to lower disposal costs, which means more funds that can be put to use elsewhere to our benefit.
While those funds are not guaranteed to be used for our benefit — corruption is still a very real fear — we ought not surrender to results-oriented thinking. Do the right thing, whether it eventually leads to the expected results. In this case, the right thing to do is to make those small moves that add up. Waste is a constant of life, something we will always have to grapple with; why not grapple with it right?
