WHAT IS RESIDUAL WASTE?

SOMETHING SMELLS!

By Alan S. Gensoli

You must have heard about the term in passing conversation, even in heated discussion, but thought nothing particular of it. Perhaps it’s just another nickname for garbage. Actually, “residual waste” is a lot more than that, and our success in Solid Waste Management work is hinged on our clear understanding of it. 

The implementation of SWM, as stipulated by Republic Act 9003, requires segregation at source where garbage is created. That means, households are responsible and accountable under the law. Households are expected to recycle, reuse, and rot compostable waste. What remains after recycling, reusing, and rotting is residual waste. And this is what the government, under the law, is required to collect-residual waste and residual waste only. So it’s not just another name for garbage. It’s the only kind of garbage government will pick up. 

To give you an idea of how much residual waste is, compared to total waste generated in the households, we look to the record of E.B. Magalona. Former Mayor Diding Gamboa, who sits with us in the SWM committee, tells that during the implementation of garbage segregation in his municipality, residual waste was a mere 250 grams per household, per day. That’s just two slices of pork chop. 

Several months back, the Bacolod Anti-Baha Alliance started an SWM pilot project in Brgy. Vista Alegre, here in Bacolod. Ourselves new to the discipline, we sought the technical guidance of Joel Jaquinta, the action officer of the E.B. Magalona experience. The first step in SWM work is waste characterization, or conducting an inventory of the types of garbage generated by a community. It is said, no two communities have the same exact types of garbage, some have more bottles than others, some have more plastic bags, some have more garden trimmings. Knowing the “character” of your garbage will guide you to institute the right SWM measures. 

At Brgy. Vista Alegre we collected garbage from random houses for an entire week, which accumulated to 11 sacks. We segregated and characterized all the contents of each sack. In the end, out of 11 sacks, residual waste was contained in only one-the rest were recyclables, reusables, and compostables. In this case, residual waste is not even 10% of total waste generated in the households. 

Based on the foregoing, if one is to seek out a strict definition of residual waste, it is this, that residual waste is any waste that you can no longer recycle, reuse, or rot. It is, in fact, a loose definition, its vastness unfortunately encompassing hazardous waste-spent batteries and light bulbs, paint and other chemical-laden materials-which can only be taken off the list of residual waste when government makes an earnest effort to pick these up separately and dispose of them scientifically. But the definition is loose for good reason. As it were, residual waste provides a laundry list of things we have yet to do. Time will come when items initially lumped under residual waste will find solution. Perhaps recycling, perhaps reusing, perhaps Eveready and Panasonic will buy back old batteries, perhaps Boysen and Davies will buy back paint leftovers and paint cans, perhaps Firefly will pick up broken lighting fixtures, perhaps Modess will pick up its used sanitary napkins, perhaps Chowking will pick up its Styro food take-out packages and dispose of this very dangerous material in its own backyard and not in ours. When that time comes, the amount of residual waste should even decrease. And that is the beginning of the road to Zero Waste Management-a life where “garbage” has become “resource” so that the idea of garbage is no longer existent, nada, zero, zilch, wala! Utopia? But Utopia that is possible and now being enjoyed by some communities, including Forbes Park in Makati and at least one house I know in Bacolod. 

Now you know how very far behind we are here in Bacolod. But necessity is the mother of segregation, and should Brgy. Felisa residents succeed in preventing further garbage dumping in their area, then we could all be thrown to a zero-waste lifestyle sooner than later, faster than you can yelp, “Oh, no!”. Even so, we should be so lucky. 

Going back to the law...and to our present medieval times...having realized that government will only pick up residual waste, we now hold some common perceptions about garbage disposal, suspect. 

First, contrary to the city’s plan to purchase more dump trucks, we don’t need more dump trucks because government will only be picking up residual waste. Assuming that Vista Alegre findings are applicable to the entire city, we only need 10% of current dump truck service. Imagine the savings, just by doing our share at home, just by segregating our garbage. 

Second, we don’t need to build a huge sanitary landfill all at once because the amount of garbage to be collected under the law has been greatly reduced, to less than 10% of garbage being collected at present, if the Vista Alegre study is used as basis. This means, government can for now build a modest-size landfill and expand it as the need arises. There is less reason to procrastinate on the construction of the sanitary landfill because immediate fund requirement will be reduced, or should be reduced. 

Based on its garbage stats, Bacolod is required to build a Category 4 landfill, which is the most expensive of four categories, because it requires the immediate construction of a leachate treatment pond where garbage juice is trapped and treated. Category 4 includes communities with at least 200 tons of garbage per day. Now, in the last SOCA of Mayor Bing Leonardia, he claimed that Bacolod has reduced its garbage to 150 tons per day-is that total garbage or just collected garbage? Granting government benefit of the doubt and agreeing that that is total garbage, well then, Councilor Greg Gasataya, Chairman of the Clean and Green Committee, should make representations to the National Solid Waste Management Commission to re-classify Bacolod’s sanitary landfill to Category 3, a less expensive facility. But let’s push pencil further: If we say that with SWM our residual waste will be less than 10% of what it is today, following Vista Alegre data, then Bacolod’s landfill should be further downgraded to a far lower category requiring a far cheaper landfill. And the dream of building our sanitary landfill will cease to be farfetched. 

Third, contrary to the intention of putting a lot of trash bins in public areas, these only encourage non-compliance with the law. Since the law requires that we segregate at source, meaning at home, when we create garbage in public areas, we should bring them home for segregation. Mayor Marides Fernando of Marikina City has been giving school children candy to force the habit of bringing garbage home (thanks for using our sugar, too, Mayor Marides). After the flag ceremony, children eat the candy and put the wrappers in their pockets to take home. Her campaign slogan? “Mumunting basura, ibulsa mo na.” Simple but creative. And effective. And there’s nothing anti-poor about teaching people to clean up after themselves. 

Fourth, residents who believe that the current garbage collection schedule is not enough, because maybe they generate more garbage than can be picked up in, say, one collection, might be barking up at the wrong tree. The solution to this problem lies not with government, but with us. By collecting residual waste only, government should not add more garbage collection trips. It might even have to reduce the frequency of collection for obvious reasons, but also to drive the point to the public that we are required to segregate at source. 

Finally, but perhaps most important of all, residents who argue against segregating garbage at home because “anyway the garbage collector mixes them” now find themselves without a leg to stand on. All the while we thought that after segregating our garbage these will be picked up by garbage collectors using a segregated collection schedule, plastics one day, bottles another day, grass cuttings yet another day. I know, that’s the system in the States. Not according to Philippine law. R.A. 9003 suggests we sell our recyclables to the junk shop, reuse our reusables, and rot our compostable trash. Garbage collectors will pick up residual waste only. So, what is there for them to mix? Nada. 

It’s time we abandon this argument. If we persist, it could only mean one thing-we are lazy to segregate. A word to the wise: Get into the habit of segregation now before the penalty clause of the law finally clamps down on you. Let us not wait for the day when government will leave our garbage in front of our homes because it is not residual waste. And commercial establishments should not wait for the time to come when they can no longer renew their business permits because they do not practice SWM. I’m not saying that that time will truly come. I’m just saying that it truly could.*