Iloilo City waste management strained as 156 villages lack MRFs

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Only 24 of Iloilo City’s 180 barangays have operational materials recovery facilities (MRFs), a shortfall that hampers waste segregation and adds pressure on the Calajunan Sanitary Landfill, according to the city’s General Services Office (GSO).

GSO head Neil Ravena said Tuesday, July 21, that the lack of barangay-level MRFs remains one of the biggest obstacles to the city’s implementation of ecological solid waste management.

“Only 30 percent of the 180 barangays have MRFs, and there is also a question on whether the operation is 24 hours,” he said.

GSO figures show, however, that only 24 barangays have MRFs, or about 13%, indicating a discrepancy between the reported number and Ravena’s statement.

Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, requires waste segregation at the source and mandates local government units to establish and operate MRFs.

The law directs every barangay, or cluster of barangays, to site an MRF on barangay-owned or leased land or any suitable open space, and sets a minimum waste diversion target of 25% away from disposal facilities.

Ravena said compliance with the law remains inadequate despite the existing legal requirements.

“The barangay should establish an MRF, and that facility will house the recyclables and organic waste. Those are the primary segregation of waste. After which, all residual waste will be collected and will be disposed of in our sanitary landfill. That is the ideal solid waste management,” he said.

Instead of operating their own MRFs, many barangays have entered into arrangements with junk shops to collect recyclable materials but still lack facilities to process biodegradable and food waste, Ravena said.

He said the absence of composting facilities causes organic waste to be mixed with residual garbage, reducing the effectiveness of waste segregation.

Ravena said biodegradable waste should ideally be processed through barangay-operated composting facilities before residual waste is transported to the sanitary landfill.

“We don’t want Iloilo City to be dirty. So we are trying our best. We are trying to resolve the compliance of the barangay because everything starts in the barangay,” he said.

Ravena acknowledged that many barangays, particularly those in the City Proper, do not have enough land to establish composting facilities.

“In the Central Business District alone, there are more than 40 barangays where there is simply no available space for composting,” Ravena said.

He also raised concerns over the increasing volume of garbage collected from boundary barangays.

These include Santo Niño Sur in Arevalo District; Ungka, Tacas, Bitoon, and Buhang in Jaro District; and Hibao-an in Mandurriao District.

“The increase in waste generation in these barangays is alarming. We are monitoring whether garbage from neighboring municipalities is also being brought into the city, particularly in Ungka and Hibao-an,” he said.

Ravena said monitoring is being conducted jointly by barangay officials, the GSO, and the City Environment and Natural Resources Office.

The city government is banking on the completion of the Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility (ISWMF) in Barangay Ingore, La Paz District, as a long-term solution to its growing waste management challenges.

Ravena said the facility’s anaerobic digestion system is expected to process 200 to 300 tons of organic waste daily.

“That will resolve the problem of organic waste, especially the problem of organic waste in the Central Business District due to the absence of a composting facility,” he said.

He said that once the ISWMF becomes operational in 2027, the lack of barangay MRFs will have less impact because segregated organic waste can be processed at a centralized facility.

The PHP 2.3 billion public-private partnership project is a collaboration among the Iloilo City Government, MetPower Venture Partners Holdings Inc., Metro Pacific Water Investments Corp., and Metro Pacific Iloilo Water.

The facility is designed to process up to 475 tons of municipal solid waste per day.

Iloilo City currently generates more than 600 tons of waste daily, of which about 200 tons consist of recyclable materials.

The facility’s rated capacity is therefore below the volume the city already produces each day.

Ravena acknowledged that achieving complete waste segregation at the household level remains difficult because many communities still lack facilities capable of processing segregated biodegradable waste.

“Yes (we cannot address segregation at the source). Maybe the most that you could segregate is recyclables, like cans, PET bottles. But the challenge is organic waste like kitchen and food waste because there are no facilities to process them,” he said.

Ravena said the city government will soon deploy two mobile MRFs capable of collecting and processing biodegradable waste from communities without permanent facilities.

The two electric-powered food waste collection trucks were donated by the United Nations Development Programme.

Ravena said their deployment has been delayed because the required charging infrastructure has yet to be completed.

“Since these are electric vehicles, we need an appropriate charging station. We redesigned the system into a two-hour fast charger, which is now being installed in Calajunan. Once completed, it will support our daily collection operations,” he said.

Under Republic Act No. 9003, barangays are primarily responsible for implementing waste segregation at the source, operating MRFs, and managing biodegradable and recyclable waste, while only residual waste should be transported to sanitary landfills for final disposal.