Environment group hits city waste incineration

Local environment advocates have criticized the plan of the city government to set up waste incineration facilities under the Waste to Energy (WtE) Project.
“We, in Eco-waste Coalition and No Burn Pilipinas, firmly believe that this waste incineration plant will jeopardize recycling efforts. It could not solve the garbage problem in the city,” No Burn Pilipinas representative Lorenzo De Vera said on Monday.
As explained by De Vera, waste incineration process does not require segregation of garbage as mixed waste materials go in one end unsorted, and are all burned together.
Waste materials will then undergo a high thermal combustion to convert them into usable electricity.
“Under the Clean Air Act of the country, any form of waste incineration which produces toxic emission is banned. The technology itself produces toxic fumes,” De Vera said.
The WtE is a P5.2 billion project under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) of the city government and a “soon to be set up” special purpose company from Japan.
The WtE project is also said to be “unnecessary” because roughly around 70% of the garbage disposed in the sanitary landfill are biodegradable and recyclable.
Thus, they advised that instead of using thermal treatment, the city should implement proper segregation and “support informal waste sector over the foreign big companies.”
The environment advocates already submitted a position letter to the city government claiming that the thermal treatment is illegal.