City to put up centralized MRF to reduce residual wastes

The city government is planning to establish a centralized materials recovery facility (MRF) in the Summer Capital that would further segregate the city’s garbage and reduce residual wastes.

In a media forum, June 26, at City Hall, General Services Office (GSO) head Eugene Buyucan said the facility will utilize machines and also help in employment generation by hiring people tasked to segregate wastes in order for these to be reused and reprocessed.

These include recyclable materials like plastics, bottles, iron, newspapers and cartons that could be reprocessed and repackaged for higher resale value, he said, in line with Mayor Benjamin Magalong’s recent pronouncement on the city’s adoption of a waste-to-reuse (WTR) strategy.

Buyucan disclosed that in 2023, his office  requested the city government for P30 million to fund the centralized MRF and another P20 million was asked this year for the facility’s land development at Dontogan barangay with a land area of almost one hectare.

The city would need to purchase several equipment for the facility to process the garbage including a glass pulverizer and shredder for plastics and cloth materials, he explained.

Buyucan revealed that there are presently five smaller MRFs in the city sponsored by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) serving the particular barangay where each is located with some being operational and others not yet in use.

He stressed that a centralized MRF would help reduce residual wastes being disposed by the local government to an engineered landfill facility outside the locality costing the city around P190 to P200 million annually. – Gaby B. Keith