UNSEGREGATED WASTE WON’T BE COLLECTED STARTING MARCH 1

The Cebu City government is again implementing the “No segregation, No collection” policy starting next month.

Nida Cabrera, head of the Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office, said 80 percent of the urban barangays have been oriented already of the garbage collection policy.

“Mo-implement na gyud mi, on the part sa CCENRO ang dili mo-follow mo-issue na gyud mi og citation tickets kay gikan sa January up to this time sige mi og orient, so sugod Marso uno, sugod na gyud mi, mopasaylo mi pero mag community service sila,” Cabrera said.

Cabrera said they are almost done orienting the urban barangays in the north district. She, however, has problem completing the orientation in the south district.

Cabrera said she had informed the barangay captains of the collection scheme to help the city disseminate the information. Cabrera said the cooperation of the barangays is important for the policy to succeed.

Association of barangay Councils president Phillip Zafra said the implementation would be more effective if the barangay captains were called to a meeting.

“Well ang ako ba mas maepektibo na siya kung gipatawag gyud og meeting ang mga barangays with the CCENRO wa gyud na’y problema ang no segregation, no collection naa lang mi mga pangutana,” he said.

Among the concerns of Zafra is the deployment of Barangay Environmental Officers.

“Naa ba didto ang BEO aron madakpan gyud tong mga magpataka og labay, and kaning di mag segregate unya sekreto lang niya maglabay kadlawon unsa orasa we cannot be at all the places all the time especially dako kay imong barangay,” he said.

The BEOs are tasked to issue citation tickets to individuals who fail to segregate their trash.

Cabrera said violators would be fined from P500 to P3, 000 depending on the nature of violation. For first offense, a fine of P500 or community service and P 1,000 for second offense with a corresponding community service will be imposed. A fine of P 3,000 for the third offense plus community service.

The city government is implementing the policy to help reduce the hauling operation expenses and to improve the garbage collection system of the city. With the policy, the city is expecting to reduce the expenses for hauling garbage by at least 30 percent.

At present, the city government has allocated P300 million for garbage collection. The policy is also incompliance with the Republic Act 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.

CCENRO has scheduled the collection of biodegradable wastes on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Non-biodegradable wastes and residual wastes will be on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.

The segregation policy was already implemented before during the administration of then mayor Michael Rama.