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Dumps are not a solution

By REY K. PALACIO, SIning YAPak (SIYAP)

(Editor’s note: Thanks for this rejoinder from Rey K. Palacio who emailed us his views regarding an article written by our own Angela Malicdem and Aileen Refuerzo of the city public information office, last issue.)

I read the article “Dumpsite closes in January 2007”, which appeared in your June 4, 2006 issue. It is so disappointing (and disgusting) to know that the Irisan dump (is it a controlled dump?) remains open and operational until now.

The article even mentioned that La Trinidad would be opening a new controlled dump in July.

Section 37 of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (RA 9003) is very clear in pointing out that all open dumps should have been closed in February 2004, while all controlled dumps should have stopped operating 16 February this year.

While RA 9003 mentions landfill as an alternative to dumps, the same law makes it clear that all local government units should gear towards establishing Materials Recovery Facilities or MRFs, which shall highlight the recovery of resources through managing discards, as the solution to the garbage problem.

Throwing away discards not only wastes resources, but also pollutes the environment and poisons the air we breathe, the food we eat, and the water we drink. It even encourages the creation of more garbage, as the presence of dumps takes away from waste generators the responsibility to reduce wastes and manage their discards.

Managing - not disposing - discards is where we should go if we are to avoid the negative impacts of dumping, whether in controlled dumps or in landfills, which leak in due time, after all.

Most importantly, we should work together to put a stop to the manufacture of all non-environment-friendly materials, if we are to really want to save our only planet and its inhabitants. 

What is clear at this point is that dumps are not a solution to the ever growing garbage problem. They are in fact adding more harm to injury. #

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