The City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) is urging business establishments to carefully craft their Solid Waste Management Plan and abide by them.
A solid waste management plan is required of every operational business in the city in order to acquire a solid waste management certificate issued by the CENRO.
“Ang purpose sa solid waste management plan, regarding ni siya karon sa iyahang sistema sa paglabay niya, pag-manage sa iyahang basura. So once na mag-inspection mi then mu-comply siya sa requirements. ang isa lang gyud ka major requirement is the solid waste management plan (The purpose of the solid waste management plan regards with their disposal system, how they manage their waste. So once we inspect then they will comply with the requirements. The only major requirement is the solid management plan),” said CENRO Head Engr. Marivic Reyes during a Davao City Disaster Radio program on Friday.
Though the certificate is only required when applying for new business permits, and as such, is no longer required upon renewal, failure to abide by the management plan will still have consequent penalties for business-owners, said Reyes, citing the city’s Solid Waste Management Ordinance of 2009.
“Naa sa balaud na ang usa ka establishment kung nag-operate siya sa iyang business without a Solid Waste Management Certificate, ma-penalize siya kay naa siya’y violation sa atong ordinance ug naa siya’y penalty nga P5,000 (It is within the law that an establishment operating without a Solid Waste Management Certificate will be penalized because this is in violation of our ordinance, with a penalty of P5,000),” she added.
Establishments must follow the system indicated within their solid waste management plan— a copy of which will be kept by CERNO as reference for future inspections. The plan must include segregation schematics, collection points, the disposal schedule, and other waste management details —all of which are geared at making sure that only residuals or unusable materials are collected by the CENRO.
Businesses found violating their waste management plan will be penalized and may have to re-apply for another solid waste management certificate.
Reyes said measures on responsible waste management are being implemented even more stringently in the city due to the continuously increasing volume of trash collected.
In 2020, the office collected approximately 223,431 tons of garbage. This increased to 254,750 tons in 2021 and 285,829 tons in 2022. All of these ended up in the city’s sanitary landfill which in itself is already full.
Although the trend points to an increase in the total volume of garbage collected, the CENRO head explained that efforts in minimizing waste output in the city has been effective to a certain extent, as the average daily collections still range between 600 to 700 tons of garbage.
“Kung subayon nato ang pag-study, naa gyud pagkunhod ang atong collection. Dili lang ma-feel sa kadagahnan, dili ma-feel sa mga Dabawenyos usually because nag-increase pud ang atong mga subdivisions, naa ta’y incoming na mga condos (If we look at the studies, there really is a decrease in our collection. Most just cannot notice this because the number of subdivisions and incoming condominiums in our city have also increased),” Reyes said.
She added that maintaining the daily average volume collected within the range of 600-700 tons is the critical indicator to the city’s solid waste management. CIO
