It was bound to happen.
The open dumpsite of the City of Dumaguete — along with all other dumpsites in the other local government units in Negros Oriental, except Bayawan City — was called out by the Department of Environment & Natural Resources for violating the law on solid waste management.
The 17-year-old law, called the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, mandates the establishment of sanitary landfills, and do away with the dumping of waste matters in public places such as roads, sidewalks, canals, esteros, parks, and establishments, or causing or permitting the same, open burning of solid wastes, causing or permitting the collection of non-segregated or unsorted waste, squatting in open dumps and landfills, among others.
Well, it wasn’t the first time for DENR to tell the LGUs to abide by the law. And it wasn’t as if nobody did anything to solve this problem. There have been discussions to establish a common dumpsite or sanitary landfill for some LGUs, Dumaguete included, in an isolated area outside of the City.
However, it did not push through because of public outcry — no one wants our trash.
What do we do with the garbage problem? First, we have to comply with the law. The law requires the establishment of a sanitary landfill. This may hardly be in the agenda of politicians who serve on a three-year contract because this is a project that can hardly get them elected. But all the squabbling and posturing in the legislative bodies could be put to good use if they get their heads together to work on the garbage problem.
Second, we mindlessly generate volumes of trash right in our households, and dump them in garbage cans, hoping that the environment technicians will pick them up, and throw them away.
But where is “away”? Because for most of us, it’s anywhere [far] but where we are.
So the problem with garbage starts with us–right in our own homes. Logically, we have a big role to play in solving this problem.
We do have a law banning plastics. Let’s implement that to the letter. Foods and goods wrapped in styrofoam and plastics — even if they are labelled “recyclable” — should be ticked off our shopping lists. Or pay dearly for it.
Stray animals compound our problem, as they rummage through garbage, scattering trash on the streets. Along this line, our guys at the City Veterinarian’s Office can be a big help.
So there’s more than one way to approach the garbage problem. We can start in our homes, even as we challenge the City and the other LGUs to think and do more.
