Waste Management
Waste Management
Waste Management
Waste Management
• Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or
disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to
materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce
their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is
also carried out to recover resources from it. Waste management can
involve solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive substances, with different
methods and fields of expertise for each.
• Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations,
for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial producers.
Management for non-hazardous waste residential and institutional waste in
metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government
authorities, while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial
waste is usually the responsibility of the generator.
The first step in the recycling process is collecting and processing. This involves
collecting recyclables that vary from community to community. There are primary
methods: drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit and refund programs.
Recyclables are sent to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to be sorted and
prepared into marketable commodities for manufacturing. Recyclables are bought
and sold like other commodities.
Step two is manufacturing. Once cleaned and separated, the recyclables are ready
to undergo the second part of the recycling process. Recycled materials are used
in innovative applications.
Recycling in Dumaguete City started in 2000 when Ordinance No. 115, the
Integrated Solid Waste Management Program authored by City Councilor Manuel
Patrimonio was approved by the City Council.
Dick Encabo, coordinator of the city's Urban Forestry Management Development
(UFMD) office, said his office has conducted series of seminar-workshops on Solid
Waste Management in the barangays through barangay officials. Encabo said
Calindagan is the pilot barangay for solid waste management in Dumaguete City.
It has a cooperative to implement the entrepreneurial system of solid waste
management. The barangay started the cooperative with the barangay councilors
as initial members.
"The recycling project is 80 to 85 percent effective. Before 60 tons of solid waste
were dumped daily at the dumpsite, but now only 28 tons are disposed there.
People are aware of solid waste management because of education and
enforcement," he said.
The principle of solid waste management is "reuse recycle, reduce waste."
Dumaguete City has become a center for "Lakbay aralan" in the country. Other
local government units visit the city to observe and see its recycling projects.
This system reduces the amount of waste disposed and results in cost saving and
energy resource conservation. Resource recovery is has become a regular activity
to.
Recycling reduces pressure at the dumpsite and conserves natural resources. It
saves the government the cost of hauling garbage from each household.
• City Ordinance # 18
An ordinance establishing a septage waste management system in Dumaguete
City.City Ordinance # 18 was passed and approved in 2006 in line with the
Clean Water Act to protect the city’s groundwater and to require three
chambers in septic tanks.
Objectives
• To ensure cleanliness all the time through orderly waste management
• To eradicate unsightly, unrecovered and overflowing waste containers in
streets, public places and open spaces.
• To optimize sanitary resource recovery for feeds, fuel materials, energy, etc.
• To minimize pollution arising from harmful gases, particulates produces by
burning and dumping of hazardous substances.
Both projects support the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004, which brought
attention to the need to treat domestic sewage coming from households, public
and commercial buildings.
The Dumaguete City Water District supplies the city’s water needs and sources
its water from 15 wells supplying approximately six million cubic meters a year.
The presence of about 15,000 septic tanks in the city, however, poses a major
health risk to the people of Dumaguete.
In 2006, the city government, with technical assistance from USAID, enacted a
septage management ordinance providing the collection and treatment of
septage, a management structure to supervise the operations of collection and
treatment of wastewater and a cost recovery plan through a septage fee
system.
As a result, the city government and the local water district entered into a
partnership to construct the septage treatment plant as mandated by the local
ordinance. Both parties equally contributed to the capital costs of the treatment
plant.
• City Ordinance # 18
An ordinance establishing a septage waste management system in Dumaguete
City. City Ordinance # 18 was passed and approved in 2006 in line with the
Clean Water Act to protect the city’s groundwater and to require three
chambers in septic tanks.