BY CHRYSEE G. SAMILLANO
The IPM-Construction Development Corporation is planning to construct a new sanitary landfill in Barangay Felisa, Bacolod City, this year at no cost to the city, its consultant, Horace Yap, said yesterday.
Yap said they are now in the process of acquiring a 20-hectare property next to the existing landfill facility of the city that is expected to be filled up by December.
They are currently negotiating with the city government to implement the project under a public-private partnership to hasten its realization, he said.
IPM-CDC may not be able to dump garbage at the present landfill facility by January if they cannot construct a bigger extension for the present one, Yap said.
Out of the 20-hectare property, 15 hectares will be used as a sanitary landfill facility while the remaining 5 hectares will be utilized as segregation area and, hopefully, also as a facility for hazardous waste from clinics and hospitals that need to hire the services of a contractor from Cebu to collect them, he said.
Yap said that since there is difficulty in implementing the “No Segregation, No Collection” policy of the city, considering that only 1 or 2 percent of the households are compliant, IPM-CDC is planning to put up a facility for segregation to process garbage before it is dumped in the sanitary landfill. Only residual waste will be dumped in the facility.
This is why they need a bigger landfill facility that they hope to be operational by next year and also to be able to implement other environmental projects in compliance with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, he said.
Meanwhile, Yap said they will meet with officials of the 61 barangays of Bacolod next week so they could prepare a new route and garbage collection schedule since this will need their approval.
He said they plan to shift the collection schedule from morning to evening to reduce traffic problems and eliminate garbage that has become an eyesore that Mayor Evelio Leonardia wants resolved.
Yap said they have prepared scheduled routes to be presented to the barangays that include the window time for throwing garbage, and the actual time for its collection. Initially, the scheduled window time will be from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. while collection will be at 9.p.m.
Currently, they have 72 trucks, but only 60 units are operational. The company had 35 to 40 units when they started in 2016. The rest of their trucks are now damaged or under repair, he said. Bacolod City has an average of 1,436.13 cubic meters daily volume of garbage, or an increase of 40 percent, compared to 2016, Yap added.*
