MANILA, Philippines鈥擰uezon City-based environmentalists are up in arms over a local council resolution asking Congress to lift the ban on incinerators to pave the way for the setup of waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities in the city.
Green advocacy leaders and Quezon City residents Von Hernandez, Sonia Mendoza, Joey Papa and Shally Vitan鈥攚ho represent different groups鈥攄enounced the councilors鈥� move as a 鈥渄eath blow鈥� to waste prevention and recycling initiatives, pointing out that incineration is a 鈥渓azy man鈥檚 dangerous technology.鈥�
They warned that lifting the ban by amending two laws鈥攖he Clean Air Act of 1999 and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000鈥攚ould lead to further ecological degradation.
Hernandez, EcoWaste Coalition president and Greenpeace Southeast Asia executive director, said the resolution was 鈥渁 regressive and despicable move on the part of the city council. Not only does it betray the Quezon City government鈥檚 utter inability to implement real solutions already prescribed in law, it also shows that these politicians would not hesitate to burn and waste taxpayers鈥� money on polluting facilities.鈥�
鈥淲hat is being presented as a 鈥榪uick fix鈥� is actually a scheme to increase the already stratospheric costs of waste management and disposal in Quezon City,鈥� Hernandez said, pointing out that the public should ask who stands to benefit from the setup of a WTE facility.
Papa, president of Bangon Kalikasan Movement, stressed that incineration as a means to dispose of solid waste would only compete with recycling which is environmentally and economically beneficial.
鈥淚nstead of being fixated with this lazy man鈥檚 dangerous technology, our city officials should focus on optimizing recycling and providing incentives for households to separate their discards at source, to recycle and to compost,鈥� he said.
These 鈥渂urn proponents,鈥� Papa said, would 鈥渘egate the best practices of a good number of Quezon City residents,鈥� like those in barangays that had succeeded in reducing their waste output through segregation and recycling.
Vitan said a quick-fix measure such as the WTE facility would only compound the city鈥檚 waste-management problem and add health hazards to the mix.
鈥淲hat Quezon City needs to do is to aggressively reduce the garbage it produces by securing the cooperation of residents,鈥� said Vitan, Asia-Pacific coordinator for Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives. 鈥淚t may be long and slow but it is sustainable.鈥�
Mother Earth Foundation president Sonia Mendoza reminded the city councilors of the danger of incinerators which, she said, emit cancer-causing dioxins.
鈥淚ncinerator peddlers would always say there鈥檚 鈥榥othing to worry about, it鈥檚 zero emission.鈥� But even the most technologically advanced waste burners with expensive, high-tech emission-control devices still emit various contaminants, often failing emission standards.鈥�
The council recently asked the House of Representatives, through former Quezon City mayor and now Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., to amend the two laws and lift the ban.
The councilors maintained that a WTE facility would be necessary in view of the city鈥檚 growing population and economic development which had increased solid waste generation and posed trash disposal problems.
Last year, the city government held exploratory talks with the group of businessman Manny V. Pangilinan for a possible joint venture, wherein the city would be supplying the trash while the MVP group would construct and run a WTE facility.