The municipal government of Angono, Rizal is targeting a garbage-free municipality through the implementation of pro-environment programs such as reducing, reusing, and recycling garbage.
To fulfill its goal, the local government has opened a Residual Containment Facility (RCF), where segregated garbage coming from the Materials Recovery Facility, is temporarily stored until haulers transport them either to the government-sanctioned and engineered sanitary landfill or to the private firm that collects residual waste.
According to Mayor Jeri Mae Calderon, the town generates an estimated 1,380 tons of garbage each month. The local government roughly spends P3.84 million for hauling tons of trash for disposal to the landfill facility in Morong.
For every truckload of garbage that moves to the disposal facility, the municipal government shells out P16,000.
“We are transporting at least eight truckloads of garbage per day and we get to spend P16,000 for each truck,” said Alan Bitong Maniaol in his capacity as acting chief of the Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office (MENRO).
But with the RCF that started last November, the Angono local government gets to save the cost of hauling with the help of Geocycle of Holcim, a private cement manufacturer. Geocycle collects some of the segregated residual wastes from the garbage containment facility at their own expense, Maniaol told Manila Bulletin.
Using a modern-day technology called Refused Derived Fuel (RDF), Geocycle transforms the residual waste into fuel which they are using in the process of manufacturing cement.
Maniaol said the local government is initially targeting to save some P1.92 million if all the 53 percent of the non-biodegradable residual waste gets to be collected by Geocycle.
Based on the 2014 waste analysis study done by the local government, 47 percent of all the garbage collected were biodegradable, while 53 percent were non-biodegradable.
Last November when the new RCF became operational, only 34.160 tons of the non-biodegradable residual waste were collected by Geocycle.
At present, not all residual waste gets to be collected by the private firm as some of the garbage such as cans, wood, metal, diapers, sanitary napkins and other wet waste are not being used as fuel by the cement firm.
“That is why we are aiming to properly process the biodegradable and non-biodegradable garbage so that we don’t get to hire garbage haulers, thus resulting in more savings for the local government," he said.