Editor’s Note: This featured study is prepared by Green Juris Organization of the Ateneo de Davao College of Law. We are publishing the entire study in a series showing this independent study on the Davao City Waste-To-Energy incineration project.
The Green Juris Organization
The Green Juris is an Environmental Conservation Organization established in 2021 to inform, educate, and advocate for a cleaner and healthier environment, composed of Environmental Law Students enrolled in Ateneo de Davao University – College of Law.
The members of Green Juris come from all walks of life, who are united in the goal of striving for a sustainable and environmentally-friendly approach to community development that we believe is both possible and attainable.
In accordance with its vision, mission, and values, Green Juris aims to promote awareness of environmental concerns within the legal community regarding the protection and upholding of a balanced and healthy ecology.
In line with this, we hereby submit our position in relation to the Waste-to-Energy Incineration project in Davao City.
OUR POSITION
The Green Juris urges the Local Government Unit of Davao City to halt the efforts in the creation of a Waste-To-Energy (WTE) Incineration project and to remove WTE incineration from the 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan by reason of it being violative to Republic Act No. 8749 or The Philippine Clean Air Act of 1999” and the Solid Waste Management Act.
WTE and the Current Situation in Davao City
Davao City is known as one of the Highly Urbanized Cities (HUCs) in the Philippines. In the 2020 Census of Population and Housing conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), Davao City is home to at least 1,776,969 people, comprising of 1,770,988 households. In an article published in the Philippine News Agency (2022), from the said number of households, the City of Environment and Natural Resources Office-Environmental Waste Management Division estimated that there are around 700 to 750 tons of garbage that are dumped in the city landfill each day.
If such a number is converted to kilograms, the entire city is producing at least 700,000 kilos to 750 kilos of unrecycled garbage per day on ordinary days, while on holidays such as Christmas, the wastage exceeds the normal count. It was further noted by the Philippine News Agency that as of November 2022, around 20,235 tons of garbage had already been dumped in the landfill. Since its operation in 2010, it was estimated that the span of the utilization of such landfill shall be up to 8 to 10 years depending on the density of waste disposal.
In 2016, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), in cooperation with Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co. Ltd. made a report addressed to the Davao City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) entitled “Collaboration Program with the Private Sector for Disseminating Japanese Technology for Waste-to-Energy system in Davao City where it cited that “with the recent increase in waste generation boosted by expansion of urban socio-economic activities, it is one of the most urgent issues in Davao City to address the limited capacity of existing waste disposal landfill by reducing the volume of solid waste through further advanced technologies.”
The waste crisis is primarily anchored on the inefficient waste management and disposal which starts from the households to the collection points up until it reaches the landfill. This caused the city’s sanitary landfill in Brgy. New Carmen to exceed its capacity and has estimated to have accumulated more than 1 million tons of both biodegradable and nonbiodegradable garbage.
In an article in Davao Today (2023), “in response to this problem, the Davao City Government plans to build a P 2.5 billion waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in a 10-hectare agricultural land in Biao Escuela in Tugbok District. The local government sees this as a ‘long-term’ solution’ by burning non-biodegradable wastes and converting them to energy. The plan was proposed in 2018 but has yet to seek approval from the national government. Recently, the Davao City Councilor through Councilor Temujin “Tek” Ocampo filed a resolution seeking a counterpart funding worth P3.486 billion for the construction of the incinerator plant”.
The said WTE facility to be built in the agricultural land in Biao Escuela will have potentially adverse effects to at least 20 barangays in the City which includes the following: (1) Mintal; (2) Sto. Nino; (3) Catalunan Grande; (4) Langub; (5) Waan; (6) Callawa; (7) Riverside; (8) Balengaeng; (9) Tacunan; (10) Biao Guianga; (11) Angalan; (12) Los Amigos; (13) Talandang; (14) New Valencia; (15) New Carmen; (16) Matina Biao; (17) Tagakpan; (18) Ula; (19) Tugbok; and (20) Biao Escuela. The Davao City zonal map provides that the areas which are most probable to be affected by the said project are comprised mainly of prime agricultural properties, environmental conservation areas, water resource areas, low density to medium density residential areas and flood ways.
WASTE INCINERATION
When it comes to disposing of the masses of wastes generated locally, that of which are generally comprised of non-recyclable and non-decomposable materials, particularly in over a million households in Davao City, it is understandable that the policymakers be presented to at least two common options: to open a new landfill or incineration.
Unlike the use of landfills which only deposits the garbage into a dump, incineration uses combustion technology which burns the solid waste materials converting it into ashes, heat or gas emissions. The basic idea is reducing landfill waste by burning or incinerating, the heat produced powers an electric generator turbine thereby producing energy. Currently the WTE technologies to be introduced in Davao City, as proposed by Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co., Ltd. Are “incineration by grate stoker furnace” and gasification”. In light of such proposal, Davao City has positioned the implementation of WTE projects in its “10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan”.
This paper seeks to create a better understanding of the proposed WTE project in Davao City and on its possible impact on the environment and the people. This aims to weigh the benefits and/or afflictions that we may experience or suffer regarding its implementation as well as what aspects we should be looking out for, taking into consideration its short-term benefits but also its long-term effects and consequences. In sum, our position is anchored on the opposition of the pending implementation of the WTE Incineration projects in Davao City, primarily contending that there is still a need to further study the project and integrate the stakeholders of the City, primarily those in the grassroots level, to conduct further social and scientific consultations to forestall future health and environmental hazards.
ARGUMENTS
ADVANTAGES OF WTE FACILITIES
PROJECTED CONTRIBUTION TO NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT PRIORITIES.
Japan International Cooperation Agency (2016), in its proposal for the collaboration for the dissemination of Japanese Technology for the WTE System in Davao City provides for the following expected contributions to the National Development priorities: (1) volume reduction of municipal waste and extension of the life of the existing landfill; (2) improvement of environmental hygiene and pollution prevention/mitigation in the neighboring area of the existing landfill; (3) reduction of GHGs (reduction of methane emission form the landfill and Carbon Dioxide reduction through the conversion of power generation source from fossil fuels to municipal waste; and (4) energy resource diversification by introducing WTE technologies.
Though the introduction of the WTE alternative, it is projected that there would be a significant reduction of the wastes diverted to the landfills which would promote efficient use of the horizontal space it occupies and that it would reduce toxic materials that would contaminate the groundwater in the water reserve areas near its vicinity. For a growing and continuously improving city like Davao in terms of infrastructure, saving space on government real property assets would be preferable than vast land acquisitions for the purpose of dump sites.
WTE FACILITIES GENERATE ENERGY
According to US Energy Information Administration (2022), WTE plants burn municipal solid waste (MSW), often called garbage or trash, to produce steam in a boiler, and the steam is used to power an electric generator turbine. This means to say that the combustion or burning of solid waste materials or MSWs would result in the generation of electricity which could be an alternative for wind, solar or geothermal power. According to Hockenos (2021), in 2018 in the EU, overall energy production from all waste (industrial waste, renewable and non-renewable municipal solid waste (MSW), non-renewable waste) amounted to about 2.4% of the total energy supply.
IT PRESENTS NEW EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
The construction of WTE facilities will bring about employment opportunities in the locality, especially for skilled workers in the construction industry. It is estimated that the construction of one WTE facility will open to at least 800 jobs and at least 60 positions when fully operational.
To be continued.
