Waste disposal is reaching crisis proportions in the Philippines.
Landfills and rivers are
overflowing with garbage. Piles of garbage obstruct sidewalks
or are dumped on vacant lots, left
to rot until they
smell and attract hordes of flies.
We know that this is an existing
concern in our country. What many of us do not know is that this massive
garbage problem is, in fact, a P73 billion industry.
In 2016, 40,000 tons of garbage were
collected every day. This totaled 14.6 million tons of garbage per year. If
each kilo only cost P5 for disposal, the total cost in waste disposal for 2016
was an outstanding P73 billion. The money is used to pay the local government,
the garbage haulers and the gate fee at landfills. It has even increased this
year because the usual P5,000 cost per truckload of garbage with five cubic
meter capacity is now P8,000.
The yearly
volume of waste generated is expected to increase from 13.48 million tons in
2010 to 16.63 million tons in 2020. In Metro Manila, averages of 9,000 tons of
garbage were collected per day from 2012 to 2016. In just five years, daily
garbage collection in Metro Manila has reached 93.8 million cubic meters. This
is due to rapid urbanization, economic growth and development, changes in
lifestyles and consumption patterns.
Aside from the
massive amount of garbage generated, there are also the problems of improper
disposal and lack of landfills.
There are more
than a hundred garbage hauling operators in Metro Manila but only three
landfills - the Quezon City Sanitary Landfill, Navotas Sanitary Land Fill and
Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill. New sites are hard to find and are much
farther away from Metro Manila. The nearest available landfill is in Montalban,
Rizal and it has already reached its maximum carrying capacity, way before
2022 when it is
supposed to reach its limit.
Uncollected
garbage, about a third of the solid waste generated in the cities, often ends up in drains, causing flooding and an increase in the population of rats, mice and other
pests. The urban poor suffer most from the health problems resulting from poor
management of solid waste.
The government
has the main responsibility for ensuring waste is properly disposed of to avert
health and environmental problems. But every Filipino can and should help by properly segregating garbage
and by reducing, reusing and recycling.
