By Chito Chavez To complement the impending ban on single-use plastics, a Quezon City (QC) councilor has called for the strict enforcement of regulations that penalize food establishments illegally dumping used cooking oil and grease trap waste into the city’s sewage system. First District Councilor Victor Ferrer Jr. (MANILA BULLETIN) Earlier, the Quezon City Council approved Ordinance No. 2691, series of 2018 as the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) routinely inspected restaurants in the city believed to be the source of grease clogging the drainage system and causing floods. QC Rep. Allan Benedict Reyes, then a city councilor, was the principal author of the ordinance. Councilor Victor Ferrer said “grease contaminates waterways and clogs the drainage if not properly disposed and treated.” “It should be the policy of the Quezon City government to prevent or minimize the health hazards on ground and water pollution caused by the improper disposal, transport, storage, and reuse of used cooking oil and grease trap waste by food establishments,” he said. Ordinance No. 2691 or The Used/Waste Cooking Oil and Grease Trap Waste Regulation Ordinance provides new policies for the transport, storage, reuse, recycling, and reprocessing or disposal of used cooking oil and grease by local restaurants and similar food establishments. The ordinance strictly prohibits and penalizes non-segregation, illegal disposal and selling, and collection and transport by unauthorized entities of used cooking oil and grease trap waste. It mandates that all used cooking oil and grease trap waste shall only be transported, stored, reused, recycled, reprocessed, treated, and disposed by waste transporters or at Treatment, Storage, and Disposal (TSD) facilities accredited by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and registered with the city’s Environmental Protection and Waste Management Department (EPWMD). Moreover, all food establishments, TSD facilities, and its service providers are required to secure an Environmental Clearance from EPWMD to ensure compliance with Republic Act No. 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990. The violation of any of the ordinance’s provisions entails a fine of P2,000 for the first offense, P3,000 for the second, and P5,000 for the third offense plus revocation of business permit. Vehicles, tools, and other equipment used in the illegal disposal and transport of waste cooking oil and grease trap waste will be impounded, the ordinance also states. In previous inspections of flood-prone areas in Quezon City, MMDA operatives and members of the Quezon City Pollution Control Division discovered that many food and commercial establishments were not using grease traps to collect wastewater, used oil, and grease. Instead, food waste and grease were being disposed directly into the sewage, causing flash floods. In 2015, MMDA also discovered tons of grease and sludge from restaurants clogging the drainage system of Tomas Morato Avenue, one of the most flood-prone areas in Quezon City.