Oro waste management summit slated on Aug. 23

A summit on solid waste management is slated on August 23 to increase awareness on the importance of waste segregation in the barangay level.

City Local Environment and Natural Resources Office (Clenro) head Engineer Armen Cuenca said the summit aims to highlight the barangays’ role in waste reduction.

“We want to instill in their minds that what the city should only collect is residual wastes, and that the barangay has to collect biodegradable wastes and recyclable,” Cuenca said.

Based on a waste analysis study conducted in 2014, every person in Cagayan de Oro generates 0.76 kilo of waste per day, but as the population increases, the garbage generation now reached 1,000 tons a day.

According to Clenro, public markets remain the venue where waste is most generated, followed by general stores, institutions, and households.

Edgar Naguio, head of the Community-Based Solid Waste Management, said to date, only barangays Gusa, Tablon, and Canitoan are so far practicing proper waste management, by implementing “No Segregation, No Collection Policy”.

Naguio said barangays Lapasan, Cugman, Bugo, and Puerto in the first district of Cagayan de Oro are among the barangays with poor waste management, while barangay Carmen is the number one waste generator in the second district.

Cuenca said he hopes that after the summit, all 80 barangays of Cagayan de Oro will be compliant to laws on proper waste management otherwise they will be forced to file cases against erring barangay officials.