Butuan City to implement no segregation, no pick-up policy

BUTUAN CITY, Sept. 14 – Effective October 1, 2016, the city government here, through its garbage collectors, will no longer conduct house to house or street by street collection of garbage.

City Mayor Ronnie Vicente Lagnada, in a memorandum sent to the 86 barangays of the city has ordered the full implementation of waste segregation and waste reduction at source to all barangays.

“The city government shall limit the collection to residual and special wastes from Barangay designated Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) and/or Barangay Pick-up Points,” Lagnada said. This would mean that it will be the responsibility of the barangays to pick-up the segregated waste/garbage from every household and be brought to their respective MRFs, he added.

Also, according to Lagnada, the disposal of non-segregated waste and the usual house to house collection will no longer be allowed as mandated under Executive Order No. 191, series of 2016. Except for what is termed as residuals, garbage that still contains biodegradable as well as recyclable materials will not be allowed to be delivered at the MRF.

Lagnada also enjoined all barangays to follow the order as provided for under Republic Act (RA) No. 10121 or “An Act strengthening the Philippine disaster Risk Reduction and Management System, Providing for the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Framework and Institutionalizing the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management  Plan, Appropriating Funds Therefor and for Other Purposes,” and RA 7160 or “An Act Providing For a Local Government Code of 1991.”

The City Environment and Natural Resources Office-Ecological Solid Waste Management Division will be responsible in transporting and dumping the residual or segregated waste at its final destination at the Dumalagan Sanitary landfill. (Nora C. Lanuza Molde/PIA-Agusan del Norte)