BACOLOD City – The Bago City Government in Negros Occidental further strengthened its solid waste management with the inauguration of its P50-million sanitary landfill expansion site in the city’s Barangay Ma-ao on Tuesday, June 18.
The inauguration, led by Vice Mayor Ramon Torres, was part of the city’s Environment Month celebration this June.
The project includes a new material recovery facility, a new water treatment facility, a septic vault for hazardous waste, compost pits, storm drains, and an administrative building.
Vicente Mesias, head of the Bago City Environment Management Office (CEMO), said the four-hectare expansion site is in addition to the existing eight-hectare facility.
On the same day, the city government also launched its waste-to-cash program in barangays Ma-ao and Poblacion.
In a bid to boost its environment protection and preservation efforts particularly on reducing plastic waste, Bago City has pioneered the implementation of a community-based waste-to-cash program in the province.
Dubbed “Aling Tindera Plastic Waste to Cash,” the program is in partnership with impact organization Friends of Hope Inc. (FHI) and Germany-based development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).
It aims to provide an avenue where people can monetize plastic waste, to encourage discipline in the treatment of post-consumer plastics, reduce leakage into the environment, and educate future generations about the benefits of co-processing, recycling and other high-level waste management processes.
Program Coordinator Mia Rosabel Grace Azurin added that two “Aling Tindera” waste collection stations are specifically located near the city’s sanitary landfill in Sitio Pandan, Barangay Ma-ao and beside the fish port at the Bantayan Park in Barangay Poblacion./PN
