The barangay MRF Fund has been established and it collects monthly dues (P1,000 – P2,000) from commercial establishment in barangay Sicat, Alfonso, Cavite. After several months, Alfonso municipal dumpsite was closed down and MENRO (Municipal Environment and Natural Resources Office) has dispatched dump trucks to Laguna dumpsite ever since. As a result, pick up from some barangays were less frequently prioritized and barangay Sicat MRF had accumulated a large volume of garbage inside.

Past President Casey Takayama talked with Engineer Malou Tibayan at Alfonso Municipality and learned the followings:

• All garbage from Alfonso have been picked up and transported to Laguna dump site at P20,000 per dump.
• Alfonso Municipality has contracted with a hauler including Laguna dump site fee of P7,500 per dump, gasoline, truck and labor. Other municipalities pay P20,000 – P25,000.
• Trash pickup is 5 days a week, i.e. every working day, costing P100,000 a week, approx. P6 million a year.
• Engineer Tibayan is willing to install a heat processor that turns combustible trash into ashes without any smoke nor dioxin with over 1,000 degree Celsius. She mentioned that Silang Municipality is studying to buy a heat processor from India.
• A year spending of the dumping expense (approx. P6 million) can already purchase a heat processor. RIMM will assist in researching about sources of heat processors.

UPDATE December 13, 2018

Municipality of Alfonso dispatched another empty dump truck (which costs the municipality P20,000) to barangay (unit of a village) Sicat MRF. Barangay Sicat MRF fund paid for four helpers who also brought their children. The dump truck was fully filled up but about a half of the MRF trash still remained.

We noticed that many bags contained recyclable materials which were supposed to be segregated. It needs to be instructed to MRF pickup team to inspect all the trash bags and not to pick up unsegregated trash. Further more, we discovered that one particular commercial establishment (restaurant business) produces more than 30 trash bags per week. Although it pays P2,000/month MRF fund to barangay Sicat, it needs to be either excluded from trash pickup or charged more because of too large volume of waste.

Many barangays (local communities/villages) do not comply with laws pertaining to separation/recycling of garbage and not polluting nearby waterways and groundwater with dumped garbage. RIMM Rotarians therefore had met with local and City Health official in their community and had proposed a bi-weekly curb-side residual waste pickup brought to a roadside collection site designated by the community for monthly pick-up by the City’s dump truck. Project start-up, first year and creek clean-up financial assistance would be provided by RIMM in addition to the money collected from 12 commercial facilities including AWH (Academy of World Healing Foundation). However, the project started on the wrong foot with the residual waste collectors picking up all garbage despite the strict order of only picking up residual waste after the garbage had been separated by residents. The wrongly collected garbage immediately caused health concerns as it accumulated along the road designed for residual waste pickup only. Rotarians and local officials immediately made the garbage pickup rounds with garbage collectors to further educate the public and to assure that only residual waste was picked up. RIMM then immediately committed to building a roofed and dog-proof MRF (Material Recovery Facility) collection site for the temporary storage of residual waste because of public health and safety concerns.