WASTE MANAGEMENT IN DUMAGUETE CITY

Waste Management
• Waste management is the collection, transport, processing, recycling or
disposal, and monitoring of waste materials. The term usually relates to
materials produced by human activity, and is generally undertaken to reduce
their effect on health, the environment or aesthetics. Waste management is
also carried out to recover resources from it. Waste management can
involve solid, liquid, gaseous or radioactive substances, with different
methods and fields of expertise for each.
• Waste management practices differ for developed and developing nations,
for urban and rural areas, and for residential and industrial producers.
Management for non-hazardous waste residential and institutional waste in
metropolitan areas is usually the responsibility of local government
authorities, while management for non-hazardous commercial and industrial
waste is usually the responsibility of the generator.

Recycling as a solid waste management strategy in Dumaguete City

In Dumaguete City, the City Government is encouraging residents to recycle their

wastes. Recycling involves a series of activities that includes collecting recyclable
materials that would otherwise be considered waste, sorting and processing
recyclables into raw materials, and manufacturing materials into new products.
Recyclables include paper and all paper products, all kinds of plastics, whole and
broken bottles, car batteries, tin cans, galvanized iron sheets and other metals.

The first step in the recycling process is collecting and processing. This involves
collecting recyclables that vary from community to community. There are primary
methods: drop-off centers, buy-back centers, and deposit and refund programs.
Recyclables are sent to a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) to be sorted and
prepared into marketable commodities for manufacturing. Recyclables are bought
and sold like other commodities.

Step two is manufacturing. Once cleaned and separated, the recyclables are ready
to undergo the second part of the recycling process. Recycled materials are used
in innovative applications.

The last step is purchasing recycled products. By "buying recycled" items,

government as well as business and individual consumers, play an important role
in making the recycling process a success. As more consumers demand more
environment-friendly products, manufacturers will continue to meet that demand
by producing high quality recycled products.

Recycling in Dumaguete City started in 2000 when Ordinance No. 115, the
Integrated Solid Waste Management Program authored by City Councilor Manuel
Patrimonio was approved by the City Council.
Dick Encabo, coordinator of the city's Urban Forestry Management Development
(UFMD) office, said his office has conducted series of seminar-workshops on Solid
Waste Management in the barangays through barangay officials. Encabo said
Calindagan is the pilot barangay for solid waste management in Dumaguete City.
It has a cooperative to implement the entrepreneurial system of solid waste
management. The barangay started the cooperative with the barangay councilors
as initial members.
"The recycling project is 80 to 85 percent effective. Before 60 tons of solid waste
were dumped daily at the dumpsite, but now only 28 tons are disposed there.
People are aware of solid waste management because of education and
enforcement," he said.
The principle of solid waste management is "reuse recycle, reduce waste."
Dumaguete City has become a center for "Lakbay aralan" in the country. Other
local government units visit the city to observe and see its recycling projects.

This system reduces the amount of waste disposed and results in cost saving and
energy resource conservation. Resource recovery is has become a regular activity
to.
Recycling reduces pressure at the dumpsite and conserves natural resources. It
saves the government the cost of hauling garbage from each household.

Recycling, as an alternative approach to solid waste management, entails changes

in lifestyle, attitude, and behavior. It underscores the participation of the people as
agents of change and the need to ensure that development is directed towards
the benefits of the people.

Waste Management Policies in Dumaguete City

• Republict Act 9003

AN ACT PROVIDING FOR AN ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
PROGRAM, CREATING THE NECESSARY INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS AND
INCENTIVES, DECLARING CERTAIN ACTS PROHIBITED AND PROVIDING
PENALTIES, APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

• City Ordinance # 18
An ordinance establishing a septage waste management system in Dumaguete
City.City Ordinance # 18 was passed and approved in 2006 in line with the
Clean Water Act to protect the city’s groundwater and to require three
chambers in septic tanks.

• City Ordinance # 115

Goal
The goal of this ordinance is the overall improvement of the environment and
ecological conditions of the City.

Objectives
• To ensure cleanliness all the time through orderly waste management
• To eradicate unsightly, unrecovered and overflowing waste containers in
streets, public places and open spaces.
• To optimize sanitary resource recovery for feeds, fuel materials, energy, etc.
• To minimize pollution arising from harmful gases, particulates produces by
burning and dumping of hazardous substances.

Water Waste Management in Dumaguete City

The city government of Dumaguete in Negros Oriental inaugurated the first

local government-funded septage treatment plant in the Philippines during the
40th anniversary of the Earth Day celebration last April 22, 2010.
The septage treatment plant is built in partnership with the local water district.
The treatment facility is a low-cost, low-maintenance system made up of
lagoons, a reed bed (constructed wetland) and drying beds. It is designed to
treat collected wastewater before it is released to the river as clean water and
solids as fertilizer.
USAID provided technical assistance through its Philippine Sanitation Alliance
(PSA) and Local Initiatives for Affordable Wastewater Treatment (LINAW)
projects.

Both projects support the Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004, which brought
attention to the need to treat domestic sewage coming from households, public
and commercial buildings.

The Dumaguete City Water District supplies the city’s water needs and sources
its water from 15 wells supplying approximately six million cubic meters a year.
The presence of about 15,000 septic tanks in the city, however, poses a major
health risk to the people of Dumaguete.

Ground water is contaminated by untreated wastewater from the septic tanks

that are not desludged regularly.

In 2006, the city government, with technical assistance from USAID, enacted a
septage management ordinance providing the collection and treatment of
septage, a management structure to supervise the operations of collection and
treatment of wastewater and a cost recovery plan through a septage fee
system.
As a result, the city government and the local water district entered into a
partnership to construct the septage treatment plant as mandated by the local
ordinance. Both parties equally contributed to the capital costs of the treatment
plant.

• Republict Act 9275

"Philippine Clean Water Act of 2004"
An act providing for a Comprehensive Water Quality Management and for other
purposes

• City Ordinance # 18
An ordinance establishing a septage waste management system in Dumaguete
City. City Ordinance # 18 was passed and approved in 2006 in line with the
Clean Water Act to protect the city’s groundwater and to require three
chambers in septic tanks.