Town to build waste facility

The Compostela Municipal Government has signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with a Malaysian firm to construct a municipal solid waste (MSW) facility that will remove the need for landfills.

Compostela Mayor Joel Quino said that if this will be realized three years from now, all garbage from the entire Cebu Province can be processed with zero waste because this is a total recycling system.

The technology will be provided by Comintel Green Technology of Malaysia and will be operated by Gamakoji Philippines, which will employ about 150 people.

“I am confident that through our efforts and commitments, we will be successful in this project,” Quino said.

Comintel Managing Director Lim Keng Hock said that the proposed MSW recycling plant can also produce at least five megawatts of electricity at the rate of 300 tons of solid waste everyday.

In the operation, the plastics, steel and biodegradable materials will be separated from each other.

The biodegradable materials will become fertilizer that can be sold to farm owners or the Department of Agriculture (DA). The electricity can be sold to Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco).

Hock said gasification is better than incineration. Gasification converts MSW to a usable synthesis gas, or syngas. In incineration, the problem is where to dispose the ash.

While in gasification, the syngas produced by gasification can be turned into electricity or heat of a higher valuable commercial products such as transportation fuels, chemicals and fertilizers. /