Pampanga and its premier city of Angeles may have to settle with the newly-opened P1-billion Material Recovery Facility (MRF) in Porac town as a stop gap measure on solid waste management with the impending closure of Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill.
The 50-hectare state-of-the-art MRF in Barangay Planas, Porac was formally opened today by Prime Integrated Waste Solutions (PIWS), a subsidiary of the Prime Infrastructure Capital Inc. (Prime Infra), a company under the diverse conglomerate of multi-billionaire Enrique Razon. Guests included Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Guillame Lucci, president and CEO of Prime Infra, Pampanga Governor Dennis Pineda, Angeles City Mayor Carmelo Lazatin, Porac Mayor Jing Capil, BCDA Chairman Delfin Lorenzana, CIAC President Arrey Perez, other local mayors, heads and executives of government agencies.
“Isa na po sa option natin ang MRF na ito kung saan pwedeng idala ang basura para tuluyan natin mapangalagaan ang kapaligiran,” Pineda told this writer.
For his part, Lazatin said that the impending closure of the landfill in Kalangitan, Capas Tarlac leaves LGUs to look into alternative measures in the handling and disposal of solid wastes.
“Pinag-aaralan na po namin kung paano po ngayon idi-dispose ng mabuti ang basura na naaayon sa itinatakdang mga batas. Isa pong alternatibo ang MRF,” Lazatin told PNN.
Both Pineda and Lazatin, however, have yet to be informed of the tipping fees and other attendant costs in utilizing the 50-hectare MRF.
Angeles City’s projected daily solid waste disposal is pegged at 370 metric tons per day. It brings about 59 percent or 220 tons of that to Kalangitan Landfill. No figures are available yet on Pampanga as of this writing.
PWS executives welcome the announcement that local chief executives are already eyeing the MRF as their garbage disposal site.
“We have very different set of operations. We are not a landfill but an MRF. Indeed we are an alternative for any other waste facility,” said Carla Peralta, lead officer for Market Sector of Prime Infra.
After opening its same facility in Cebu in January this year, Prime Infra’s MRF in Porac town is the second of its kind in the Philippines. It can process 5,000 tons daily with 80 to 90 percent recovery of received wastes. This capacity can cater to the northern and Central Luzon area.
The Capas Kalangitan Landfill may no longer operate when its contract with government expires this October. Both the BCDA and CDC have already made pronouncements that the contract is not renewable and that its current location is no longer in conformity with new land use plans of the government.
