Three years ago, as a resident of Baguio City, we were encouraged to segregate our trash into only two categories namely Biodegradable and Non-Biodegradable. It should be noted that there is a lack of solid waste management disposal facility in Baguio City which was reported in August 2018, that had cost the local government more than P472 million in hauling and tipping fees. “A solid waste management disposal facility was not established die to lack of suitable area to put up the integrated solid waste system contrary to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 resulting in expenditures for hauling and tipping fees totaling P472,462,097.19 for the calendar years 2011 to 2017.” Baguio City hauls its garbage to Tarlac City. Baguio has since been driven in practicing waste reduction, but the 472 million expenditure would have been used for other development projects. Solid waste has increased for the past years and nowhere to put it. This is why, as a citizen, we should be responsible for the waste we produce and for reducing them to be able to live a much more sustainable community. Especially, in the situation of Baguio wherein the limited geography is not proportional to the population producing waste.

When I moved to Quezon City, we do not directly participate in waste segregation but our building should. Quezon City, in an effort to improve solid waste management adopted the Package Clean-up System. The Package Clean-up System is where the contractor assumes the full responsibility for waste management,from collection until disposal. Unassuming the responsibilities of the resident, even with the right for their trash to be collected and managed, residents do not have a mandated duty in making managing and segregating their own trash in their residential homes.

However, in public there are few segregated trashcans available for us to directly segregate and manage our own trash. The Package clean-up system has said to significantly reduce the City’s waste collection expenses without sacrificing efficiency.

Waste is now managed by private companies or the contractors, with their contracts being limited to one year because of the national procurement law. Private operators are not guaranteed a great return of investment when their equipment is modernized; their incentive will be very limited. Better equipment would eventually lead to more effective and efficient service delivery. This makes their waste management system financially unsustainable because the city is not collecting garbage management fees, because the cost if collection is higher than the budget allocation for it. Waste is then hauled to the Payatas dumpsite which has more than 5 years of life remaining with just the current landholdings. Quezon City, not having to fund a program to inform, educate, and communicate ways to change the behavior and attitude of the people towards waste management, compensates on funding promotional campaigns aimed at achieving the a wide participation in protecting the environment.

The problems in both cities root from a lack of geographical and financial sustainability on managing and dumping them. More than the problems the government, we must strive as individuals to make our homes, our communities, our cities, and eventually our country to be more sustainable.

-Sisig