A COUNCILOR said they had installed a food waste-to-energy facility in Barangay 76-A, Davao City, to help solve their food waste problem.
Councilor Temujin “Tek” Ocampo said during the Aprobado sa Konseho media forum on Tuesday morning, May 14, 2024, at the Sangguniang Panlungsod that they initially installed the food waste-to-energy initiative at Maa City Jail to combat the increasing rate of food waste in the area.
Ocampo, who chairs the committee on environment and natural resources, said that the food waste-to-energy facility was installed at the barangay hall of 76-A in the second week of May. He said it was a simple technology that converts methane gas to energy.
However, before it will be functional, the food must ferment, and he expects that by the third week of May, it will be ready for use by the residents in the area.
“Dili pa siya pwede magamit tungod kay [We cannot use it because] we are still trying to ferment all the food waste that we put into the system,” he said.
Ocampo revealed that before the food waste-to-energy facility, Maa City Jail threw their food waste along the canals, attracting rodents and causing major health risks. Hence, they see the food waste-to-energy facility as a solution to the area’s problem, providing them with a cooking solution, similar to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as well.
The councilor said he hopes other barangays will replicate the initiative since the facility’s product is a soil conditioner or fertilizer that is good for the plants. Ocampo added that even though no study was conducted on how much nutrients plants could get from the facility’s product, there was evidence that plants applied with its products bore much fruit earlier.
“We hope that other barangays can also replicate this, so we intended na magbutang didto sa [we put it at] 76-A considering their number of population sa barangay sa kadaghan sa mga tao diha [since there is a lot of people there],” he said.
He said that the project was in coordination with the R2R company. Through the facility, innards of fish, fruits, and vegetable fillings are transformed into energy that the residents can use; hence, lessening the amount of food waste being dumped at the Davao City Sanitary Landfill.
“We are trying to minimize food waste, which is a number one source of methane nga makadaot sa atoang atmosphere caused by the greenhouse gas effect. Malabay man gyud na siya sa sanitary landfill mamoblema nata diha, dapat man gyud didto mga residual waste karon (We are trying to minimize the food waste, which is a number one source of methane that would ruin the atmosphere because of the greenhouse gas effect. Food waste usually gets dumped at the sanitary landfill when residual waste should be the only thing dumped there),” he said. RGP
