The Manila Times

Mandaue City reduces waste and CO2 emissions

MARIT STINUSCABUGON

AMONG Cebu’s three highly urbanized cities, Mandaue City is the lesser known. Lapu-Lapu City, where the Mactan-Cebu International Airport is located, has its beach resorts while Cebu City has malls, hotels and, of course, the Santo Niño. Mandaue City, a manufacturing hub, is the most congested of the three cities with a population density of 10,400 persons per square kilometer. The 2020 Census measured the city’s population as 364,116 — much less than Cebu City’s and Lapu-Lapu City’s 964,169 and 497,604, respectively. However, Mandaue City’s population must by now be closer to 400,000. The 2020 census was conducted at the height of the Covid-19 lockdown when manufacturing operations in both formal and informal sectors were suspended. Many workers left the city and returned to their home provinces, awaiting production to resume.

Being an industrial hub with fewer commercial areas or places where people can hang out, Mandaue City is for visitors a place we pass through on our way to or from the airport. With the opening of the CebuCordova Express Link Expressway (CCLEx) bridge connecting Mactan Island directly to Cebu City, the riding public can bypass Mandaue City and its traffic altogether.

But lo and behold, Mandaue City may not have the tourist sites and commercial areas of its neighboring cities but it has a vision and plan to become a climate change resilient and environmentally sustainable city. January is International Zero Waste Management Month and the Zero Waste Cities Network was formally launched last January 26. Mandaue City, without being part of this initiative, is embracing the vision: adopting zero waste, or at least a substantial reduction of waste, as one of the strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yes, Mandaue City under its Road Map for Sustainable Development is keeping tabs of its CO2 emissions. The city is mindful of its garbage’s contribution to these emissions and thus to climate change.

I learned about Mandaue City’s efforts from Francis de la Cruz who was sent by the Manila-based Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities to comment on Mandaue City’s accomplishment vis-à-vis its sustainability goals. Angelica Alcantara, solid waste management focal person of the Mandaue City Environment and Natural Resources Office (MCenro), provided some more details: Specific targets have been set for each category of solid waste. Every month, personnel of MCenro sit down with the chairmen of the city’s 27 barangay to review accomplishments vis-à-vis these targets. Meetings are also conducted with the garbage collectors for the latter to know if the segregation is effective in reducing the volume of residual waste brought to the landfill for final disposal. The city is paying a private landfill based on volume delivered and bringing down the cost of solid waste management is one of the goals of Mayor Jonas Cortes’s administration. The city has already saved millions of pesos by diverting recyclable materials to specialized recycling shops while more organic waste is being composted. Everyone needs to be on the same page. As a speaker at the International Zero Waste Conference put it, “Zero waste is easier together.”

The landfill that receives Mandaue City’s residual waste is located in Binaliw, a Cebu City upland barangay. It was recently acquired by Prime Integrated Waste Solutions Inc., a unit of Enrique Razon’s Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. Binaliw is adjacent to Guba, the barangay eyed by the Cebu City government for the location of its waste-to-energy facility. The incinerator, once operational, will burn about 800 tons of garbage daily, under a 40-year take-or-pay contract with the city of Cebu.

The Department of Energy is encouraging local governments to adopt incineration as a way to generate electricity that doesn’t rely on imported fossil fuels. Foreign “waste solution” companies are pushing their technologies across the country. How many of our towns and cities are enforcing any form of segregation? Once our LGUs go the way of incineration it is unlikely that we will ever see any serious attempt to reduce waste and do segregation at source.

Siquijor province, like Mandaue City, is taking the progressive path. The province, as the only representative from Visayas-Mindanao, is a founding member of the Zero Waste Cities Network. That’s the way to go.

It is relatively easier for rural LGUs to embark on zero waste, but Mandaue City’s taking garbage’s contribution to CO2 emissions seriously and coming up with a doable, well-defined plan and targets, is truly inspiring. Sure, it’s not perfect. But every journey of a thousand miles starts with the first steps and Mandaue City is off to a good start. Meeting the targets, seeing results, getting more people in the community involved, will inspire the personnel of MCenro and other stakeholders to take the program to the next level. Mandaue City’s elementary and high school students are being taught the importance of waste segregation and reduction of CO2 emissions in fighting climate change. Equipped with the right knowledge and skills, these kids will be able to live more environmentally sustainable lives than their parents.

Opinion

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2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

2023-01-30T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/281818582969186

The Manila Times