Proper veggie waste disposal law eyed

BAGUIO City Councilor Elaine Sembrano has crafted a law requiring wholesalers of agricultural crops to dispose of refuse at source and declog the city market with trash.

Sembrano in her proposed law said the city market is the source of voluminous organic agricultural wastes or refuse, such as, vegetable trimmings, rotten flowers and fruits, most of these agricultural products do not come from the city, but from nearby provinces and municipalities.

The City General Service Office reported the average volume of agricultural refuse collected daily in the city market alone reaches close to 17 tons with 15 coming from vegetables, 1.5

from flowers and fruits at 0.7 tons.

“The city has to address the volume of waste generated in the City Market and in the different satellite markets that add up to the burden of the garbage collectors,” Sembrano said.

Sembrano’s proposed ordinance also prohibits the act of wholesalers to dispose agricultural refuse in the city public market and in the different satellite markets.

A fine of P1,000 will be meted to violators while the city market supervisor’s office is tasked to enforce and implement the ordinance.

Agricultural refuse is unsalable materials produced wholly from agricultural operations directly related to the growing of crops, such as but not limited to wastes from vegetables, fruits and flowers, trimmings, banana trunks and leaves, corn husks, corncobs and others.

In a recent audit report, the city government spent P254.52 million in hauling and P217.941 million in tipping fees to bring its waste to dumps outside the city.

Baguio spends P935.50 and P550 in hauling and tipping fees, respectively, for every ton of waste in 2017 alone, the city government spent P82.582 million in hauling and tipping fees, an increase of P11.029 million from its garbage disposal expenses in 2016.