Unsegregated garbage will not be collected,arbage segregation, reduction urged in Tabuk City

By Geraldine Dumallig and Larry Lopez

Wednesday 8th of August 2012

TABUK CITY, Kalinga, Aug 8 (PIA) -- The city government is continuously urging the public to help reduce the volume of collected garbage daily.

City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) chief Patricia Abibico said there is a need for the public to know, understand, and appreciate the advantages of proper waste management to prevent the possible negative effects of garbage indiscriminately thrown.

“Let us not wait for the garbage and flooding problems in Manila and other areas to happen in Tabuk City, so let us start disposing our garbage properly starting from our homes,” she said.

Through an ordinance, each household in the city, she said, is encouraged to practice segregating their garbage into degradable and bio-degradable.

Before bringing out the garbage, remove the recyclable materials like cans, papers, bottles and plastics that could be sold in the junkshops from the biodegradables, she said saying that this is one simple way of reducing the volume of garbage collection.

Garbage trucks would be collecting the degradable and non-degradable garbage separately based on specific schedules from the urban barangays of Tabuk City, she said

It is important for the public to bring out their garbage for collection based on the schedule since trucks would be bringing the non-degradable and residual waste to the Dilag dumpsite while the degradable waste are brought to the Agro-Food Center in Barangay Balong to be converted into organic fertilizers.

“This is the reason why garbage not segregated will not be picked up by the garbage collectors,” she said.

In support to the Waste Management Program of the city government, city agriculturist Gilbert Cawis said that every household should strictly comply with the segregation of garbage before collection.

“To help in reducing the volume of garbage at the dumpsite, we made a partnership with the city ENRO to have the biodegradable materials brought to the Balong Agro-Food Center to be utilized for the city’s vermicomposting project to turn the garbage into organic fertilizer,” he said.

This he said is one way of turning garbage into useful materials.

Composting he said could also be practiced at home, especially those implementing backyard gardening. This he said is just a matter of placing the biodegradable wastes like vegetable peelings, cut grasses, uprooted weeds and others into a pot or small pit, then covering it with soil.

As a continuing advocacy, the city ENRO, has also conducted symposium in schools and radio programs to inform the public especially on the existing ordinance of proper waste segregation.

Through this program, the city government is hopeful that Tabuk would remain a clean and green city, with manageable garbage concerns and eventually contributing in mitigating the impact of climate change in the locality.

Meanwhile, the Kalinga Apayao State College (KASC) has joined the bandwagon against plastic use.

KASC President Eduardo Bagtang said as a start, the no-plastic drive is observed every Wednesdays inside the campus, where no one should use any plastic material, which is hazardous to the environment.

According to Bagtang, although the school-level advocacy may be simple, what matters is the awareness being taught to school employees and students that would later reach their communities.

“This is our humble contribution to help address global warming by educating our own staff and students not to practice the simple causes of the big problem,” Bagtang said.
(JDP/ GGD-LL, PIA CAR, Kalinga)