SPEAKER Lord Allan Velasco on Thursday urged the Senate to pass the
bill allowing the use of waste-to-energy (WTE) technologies to help
solve the country’s perennial garbage problem.
Velasco said it was high time for the government to consider the
adoption of WTE technologies in the treatment and disposal of solid
waste as many of the landfills in the country will soon be filled up.
“The huge amount of waste that we produce threatens to overwhelm our
landfills and create worse garbage disposal problems,” Velasco pointed
out. “Before this happens, we must now look for cleaner and more
sustainable method to treat and dispose of solid waste, such as WTE.”
Last November 24, the House of Representatives approved on third and
final reading House Bill (HB) No. 7829 or the proposed “Waste
Treatment Technology Act” with close to 200 lawmakers, including
Velasco, signing on as principal authors.
The Senate version, which was authored and sponsored by Senator
Sherwin Gatchalian, is pending on second reading.
The bill aims to allow the use of any WTE technology, including
incineration, as long as it does not produce poisonous or toxic fumes.
It seeks to amend Republic Act 8749 or the Clean Air Act of 1999 by
repealing Section 20 thereof to allow the use of incineration for WTE
purposes.
According to Velasco, WTE technologies convert the waste into energy
and thus minimize the amount of trash sent to landfills, which also
reduces negative impacts on the surrounding environment.
“WTE facilities provide a safe, technologically advanced means of
waste disposal that reduces greenhouse gases and generates clean
energy,” said Velasco, who was previously the chair of the House
Committee on Energy.
The House chief said WTE is widely recognized as a technology that can
help mitigate climate change because the waste combusted at a WTE
facility does not generate methane as it would at a landfill.
He said the electricity produced from a WTE facility offsets the
greenhouse gases that would otherwise have been generated from coal
and natural gas plants.
WTE is widely used in European countries, where there are limited
space for landfills. It has also worked to keep trash off the streets
and waters in Japan and Singapore.
In the Philippines, the only waste disposal method allowed under RA
9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 is sanitary
landfill, which is quite expensive and difficult to build, operate and
maintain.
According to government data, only 30 percent of the country’s
population has access to sanitary landfills, many of which are close
to filling up. The country, meanwhile, generates an estimated 43,700
tons of garbage daily.
Under HB 7829, WTE facilities will be regulated to make sure they are
fitted with equipment that will continuously monitor, record and make
publicly available the reported data on their emissions or air
pollutant concentrations.
Entities using WTE technologies will be required to incorporate in
their facilities or operations appropriate material recovery program
and their thermal units would only treat wastes at a temperature of
not less than 850 degrees Celsius.
Once the bill is enacted into law, the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) shall be primarily responsible for its
implementation and enforcement.
The DENR will be mandated to promote the use of state-of-the-art,
environmentally sound and safe technologies for the handling,
treatment, thermal or non-thermal destruction, utilization and
disposal of residual wastes.
Pursuant to Section 15 of RA 8749, Pollution Research and Development
Program shall include the continuous monitoring, evaluation and
development of more appropriate air quality guideline values and
standards for the treatment of municipal and hazardous wastes, or for
the processing of any waste material for fuel.
