DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 04 August) – Building a waste-to-energy (WTE) facility is a “false” and unsustainable solution to the city’s solid waste problem, a network of environmental groups in Davao City maintained.
In a statement Thursday, the Sustainable Davao Movement (SDM) said the WTE incineration project could cause detrimental effects on the environment and public health, as it could release highly toxic substances.
The group was reacting to the statement of Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte during his first State of the City Address last July 28 where he urged the national government to provide a counterpart fund to construct the WTE facility.
It said among the documented adverse effects of dioxins and furans, both highly toxic chemicals and are known endocrine disruptors, include “respiratory, nervous, and reproductive disorders and cancer.”
SDM further cited that incineration is prohibited under Section 20 of the Clean Air Act, which is consistent with the country’s commitment to eliminate Persistent Organic Pollutants as a signatory to 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants.
The network said they are wary of the WTE because it is a “major carbon emitter,” which can produce “an average of one ton of carbon dioxide for every ton of waste incinerated.”
It expressed concern that the unsegregated local wastes could only worsen the problem, considering that those wastes that are of “wet” character with low calorific value and those containing chlorine, could exacerbate the release of toxins and their byproducts.
“The proposed site is in an agricultural area, and dioxins have been documented to be passed in the food chain through poultry,” the environmental advocates said.
They believed that the WTE incineration facility could cause perpetual damage to the city city’s natural resources without addressing the solid waste problem.
They said it could even encourage the production of more plastic wastes to keep the facility running, which runs counter to “the recently passed No to Single-Use Plastics Ordinance of Davao City.”
“The city has taken steps in the right direction with its Plastics-Free Policy of 2021. With the strict implementation of RA 9003 Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, the combination of waste reduction and segregation-at-source and materials recovery will address the problem,” the statement read.
In August 2022, the City Council of Davao passed a resolution urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to provide a counterpart fund worth P3.486 billion for the WTE project.
The resolution, authored by 1st District Councilor Tek Ocampo, said the country should seize the opportunities offered by the Japanese government to avail of technical and financial assistance to develop sustainable ways of managing solid wastes.
Ocampo, chair of the committee on environment, said the Japanese government expressed the intention in 2018 to donate 5.013-billion yen, or equivalent to P2.052 billion, to partially fund the WTE facility.
According to data from the City Environment and Natural Resources Office, some 600 to 800 tons of wastes are generated daily in the locality. (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
