“I only feel angry when I see waste. When I see people throwing away things we could use.”—Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
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Thousands of years ago, the disciples were astonished to witness Jesus Christ walking on water, a miracle documented by Matthew (14:22-23). However, what was once deemed a miraculous event may no longer be viewed as extraordinary, as humans can now literally traverse water. With vast amounts of garbage floating on the surface, anyone can achieve this feat without the risk of sinking.
Garbage, commonly referred to as trash in American English and rubbish in British English, consists of waste materials that individuals dispose of, typically because they are deemed no longer useful. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it as “unwanted items that are discarded.” However, specialists categorize these materials as solid waste.
Most of these solid waste are disposed of by human beings. By the year 2050, the global population is expected to reach an astonishing 9.9 billion, representing an increase of over 25% from the 7.8 billion recorded in 2020. This growth rate may be even more pronounced in the Philippines, where the population is anticipated to rise by nearly 30%, from about 109.5 million in 2020 to 142 million by 2045.
The increase in the number of consumers necessitates greater resources and results in increased waste generation. This waste has already escalated nationally from about 13.48 million tons in 2010 to 18.05 million tons by 2020.
According to Environment Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, the country produces at least 61,000 million metric tons of solid waste each day, a volume sufficient to fill nearly 37 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
In Metro Manila, the waste contribution is expected to rise from 22.2%, equating to 8,636 tons per day, to 26.7%. Projections indicate that the region could generate over 70 million tons of waste within the next three decades. Currently, around 9,212 tons of waste have already been deposited in creeks and canals that flow into Manila Bay during the rainy season.
Among the top producers of garbage in Metro Manila, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reports, are Quezon City (3,600 tons per day), Manila (1,174 tons), Caloocan (912 tons), Parañaque City (634 tons), and Makati City (474 tons).
Outside Metro Manila, Davao City tops the list of solid waste producers as it generates between 600 tons to 800 tons of garbage daily. Cebu City produces close to 600 tons of garbage per day, according to the Department of Public Services. Iloilo City has less with 496 tons daily, as per study conducted in 2021.
In Davao City, the issue of waste management has escalated into a significant challenge. In 2009, Romel V. Gador undertook a comprehensive study across the 72 barangays within the three districts of Davao City. The findings of this research were subsequently published in the Southeastern Philippines Journal of Research and Development.
The study revealed that the predominant industry in the area was food manufacturing. The five most common types of waste produced included plastics, paper, food scraps, kitchen waste, and metals. Each week, the total generation of organic and inorganic waste was reported to be less than 5 tons.
“Davao City is big so we must control the waste generation,” said First District Councilor Temujin “Tek” Ocampo during a media briefing in 2022 at The Royal Mandaya Hotel. “That garbage of ours at the edge of the sea will eventually disappear because it will be included there.”
Because of this, the waste-to-energy (WTE) project comes into the scenario. “No one else has seen that would dramatically reduce the waste problem in Davao and if (WTE plant) is built, I believe that other cities will follow suit, especially Metro Manila, which generates a lot of waste,” said Ocampo, who is the chairperson of the Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
The construction of WTE is seen to be the immediate possible solution to the enormous garbage problem. WTE, a form of energy recovery, is the process of generating energy in the form of electricity and/or heat from the primary treatment of waste, or the processing of waste into a fuel source.
“Waste-to-energy 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,” the US Energy Information Administration explains.
MSW is a mixture of energy-rich materials such as paper, plastics, yard waste, and products made from wood. In the United States, for every 45 kilograms of MSW, about 38 kilograms can be burned as fuel to generate electricity. Waste-to-energy plants reduce 907 kilograms of garbage to ash that weighs between 136 kilograms and 272 kilograms, and they reduce the volume of waste by about 87%.
Now, if the world will have the “business-as-usual” scenario when it comes to garbage, “we can expect global waste production to increase to 6 million tons per day by 2025, and by the end of the century, we could witness a whopping 11 million tons of waste generation per day,” said Brian Nana-Sinkam in a paper submitted to Stanford University.
Nana-Sinkam based his statistics from the 2016 report of the World Energy Council. In order for the scenario not to happen, he suggested the adoption of WTE. “Although WTE only holds a minimal 6% of the global waste management market, its growth will boost contribution in the fight against the impending increase in waste generation,” he said.
When comparing WTE with fossil fuels in terms of economic and emission performance, Grace P. Sapuay, the President of the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines, told S&T Post: “There are technologies with environmental caps so that—unlike fossil fuels, for example—they contain high emissions. Singapore uses incineration technology, but not many emissions were seen. In terms of the economy, of course, fossil fuels are cheaper, but what can we do if the people are adopting the ‘throw-away approach?’ We have to have waste-to-energy technology in the Philippines.”
In Davao City, the implementation of WTE is not without its detractors. The most vocal of them is the Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS), an environmental non-government organization.
“IDIS has always been vocal in its opposition to the Waste-to-Energy (WTE) Incineration Project due to its adverse effects on humans and the environment,” IDIS said in a statement released to the media.
“As we always reiterate, burning waste produces highly hazardous chemicals such as dioxins and furans. These toxic chemicals are known to be carcinogenic, impact the neurological development of children, cause respiratory diseases, and pollute our water and air,” IDIS said.
Not only that, WTE is said to “exacerbate the effects of climate change.” The likely reason: “it incites the city to produce more waste to keep the facility running.” IDIS added, “It would even result in the importation of waste from other provinces or regions just to meet the minimum requirements.”
Dr. Jorge Emmanuel, a distinguished professor and environmental scientist, also said: “WTE is simply waste incineration in disguise. It burns tons of municipal wastes to generate a small amount of net energy while emitting massive amounts of toxic pollutants and greenhouse gases.”
Instead of pushing for the implementation of a WTE plant, IDIS is urging the city government to opt for zero waste solutions. These include reducing plastic usage, enhancing segregation system facilities, segregated-based collection, composting facilities, Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF), and supporting Community-Based Waste Management systems, small-scale recycling and composting enterprises, and resource collectors.
“The barangay local government unit of Mintal has been supporting the initiatives of the Mintal Resource Collectors Association,” IDIS reported. “The collected waste in barangay Mintal has dropped drastically after its inception – from 24 tons of garbage per collection to 8-9 tons of garbage, and still aiming for zero waste.”
Meanwhile, of the 61,000 million metric tons of garbage the country generates daily, Loyzaga said about 24% of this is plastic waste. Some 48 million shopping bags, 45 million thin-film bags, and 163 million plastic sachet packets make up this daily buildup of garbage. Remarkably, only around one-third of this garbage makes it to landfills or other disposal sites, with an estimated 35% ending up in the ocean.
“We are not winning the war against single-use plastics,” Loyzaga said at a news conference during the World Environment Day some years back.
Those single-use plastics that end up in the ocean are most likely to break down and become microplastics. Earthday.org contends there are now 24 trillion pieces of microplastics floating in the ocean. Most of these microplastics are eaten by marine animals, including fish.
“While microplastics themselves may not be inherently toxic, their chemical nature allows them to attract and accumulate other toxic substances on their surfaces. When microplastics with attached toxic substances are ingested, they pose a potential threat to human health,” said Marybeth Hope Banda, member of the research team who conducted the study.
Plastics likewise threaten wildlife creatures living in the oceans. Wildlife becomes entangled in plastic, they eat it or mistake it for food and feed it to their young, and it is found littered in even extremely remote areas of the Earth.
“Marine plastic pollution has impacted at least 267 species worldwide, including 86% of all sea turtle species, 44% of all seabird species and 43% of all marine mammal species,” Clean Water Organization notes. “The impacts include fatalities as a result of ingestion, starvation, suffocation, infection, drowning, and entanglement.”
The solid waste management in the country is addressed through the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003). This law emphasizes practices such as segregation, proper disposal, recycling, and waste diversion.
Unfortunately, only 28% of the country’s plastic garbage is recycled, according to Jonas Leones, Environment Undersecretary for Policy, Planning, and International Affairs. At least 800,000 metric tons of plastics are disposed of each year.
