METRO CLARK Waste Management Corp. (MCWM) is set to complete its biggest landfill expansion by next month, following a boost in waste collection the past five years.
Holger Holst, MCWM director for technical services, said the P120-million, five-hectare expansion that began in January will be finished in four weeks, before the rainy season starts.
“We build [the landfill] in phases. In the moment, we have around 17 hectares [of landfill]. In total, we have 70 hectares [allotted for landfill], Mr. Holst said in an interview.
“It’s the seventh time we expanded the landfill. We make all these in phases. This is the biggest. Normally, we have just two to three hectares [per expansion]. We started with three hectares [in 2002]. But this one now is the first time that we are really on the end of the landfill [area],” he added.
MCWM President and Chief Executive Officer Rufo B. Colayco said during a briefing that the 70-hectare landfill, when completed, could fill a hill as high as 120 meters. He expects this scenario to happen in 10 years.
MCWM is a waste management solutions group that has a 100-hectare property in the Clark Special Economic Zone. It caters to the waste of 90 cities and municipalities across Central Luzon. Every day, it collects an average of 1,600 tons of garbage, 89% of which are household waste.
Aside from the landfill expansion, MCWM is also seeking to expand its reed bed before the year ends. The reed bed is a facility that treats residual waste from the garbage that MCWM has collected from its clients that turns leachate into clean water.
The company is also warning of a rapid increase in waste collected in the Philippines. It projects by 2025 there will be 77,765 tons of garbage collected every day, coming only from cities.
Citing data from the National Solid Waste Management Commission as of 2016, it said that currently, the Philippines has 403 open and 108 uncontrolled dumpsites. There are only 118 sanitary landfills which only 15% of local government units have access to.
“The number of sanitary landfills in the Philippines remains small despite the passage of Republic Act No. 9003, which requires for the closure of open and uncontrolled dumpsites, about 17 years ago,” Mr. Colayco said.
He emphasized the need for more engineered sanitary landfills that follow Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
MCWM is partly owned by German conglomerates BN Ingenieure GmbH and Heers & Brockstedt Umwelttechnik GmBH. It is looking into waste-to-energy technology as a viable option to address the rising waste production issue, which would be patterned after those in Germany and other European countries.
But Mr. Colayco said it still needs to settle regulatory issues with the government before it comes up with a plan in the next two to three years. — Denise A. Valdez
