Leyte town enforces garbage segregation policy

JAVIER, Leyte, May 31 -- The local government unit here has started enforcing the "no segregation, no collection" policy in its 28 villages with collection schedules on Monday and Friday for biodegradable waste and Wednesday for non-biodegradable and recyclable waste. 

The policy was crafted in 2011 through municipal ordinance No. 2011-06, according to municipal planning and development officer Fernando Sarile, Jr. 

“It took time before we implemented the ordinance until just recently… this year. We are happy to have 90 percent compliance rate,” Sarile said on Wednesday.

Each village is provided with material recovery facility (MRF) where residents will place their segregated garbage.

“From a big pile of garbage, we noticed a minimal collection of garbage in the household level to about a kilogram per family. Mostly, diapers and sanitary napkins,” Sarile said.

The official added that violators would be penalized with PHP500 for the first offense, PHP1,500 for the second and PHP2,500 for the third offense with imprisonment.

Unlawful activities with fine and penalties under “no segregation, no collection” policy are littering, throwing and dumping of waste in public places with PHP500 fine or penalty of community services not less than three days but not more than five days.

Other violations are dumping and burying of biodegradable or non-biodegradable materials in flood prone areas with fine of PHP1,000 or penalty of imprisonment of not more than 15 days to not more than six months.

Also prohibited is the transport and dumping in bulk of collected domestic, industrial, commercial and institutional waste in areas not specified under the law with fine of PHP1,500 or six months imprisonment to not less than one year.

The local government also disallows the construction of any establishment within 200 meters from open dump or controlled dumpsite or sanitary landfill. Violators will be fined with PHP2,500 and face imprisonment of not less than one year but not more than six years.

Sarile said the local government had tapped a contractor in the collection of segregated garbage. They will acquire a dump truck to save the garbage collection cost.

The local government will use the cash reward from the SGLG (Seal of Good Local Governance) award from the Department of Interior and Local Government to acquire the dump truck. 

Javier, which is 73 kilometers south of Tacloban city, is a 4th class town in the Leyte province with a population of 25,379.(Roel T. Amazona/PNA)