APFED Good Practices Database

Solid Waste Management in Cebu City

Summary of the Practice

Country: Philippines
Province/Area: Cebu
Sectoral Issues: Urban Environment
Cross-Sectoral Issues: Environmental Governance, Human Capacity Building, Environmental
Information, Environmental Technologies
Implementation Level: Local level
Duration: N/A
Sponsors: 1) Amount: N/A
2) Source(s) of funds: N/A
3) Efforts to raise/sustain funds for implementation: N/A
Actors Involved: Local Government, Non-governmental organisations

Description of the Practice

Background/ Objectives:
Like other growing cities, the city of Cebu has problems managing its solid wastes. The major solid
waste management problems of the city can be broadly categorised as follows:
1) Weak institutional and organisational system for Solid Waste Management (SWM).
2) Problems in the upper waste stream:
- Inefficiency in garbage collection due to lack of garbage vehicles.
- No waste segregation done at the source.
- No waste recycling done at the point of generation.
- Too little revenue from waste collection fees.
3) Problems at the downstream:
- The city has a sorting facility, which has never been used due to design and operation problems.
- The incinerator cannot be used due to The Clean Air Act of the Philippines which prohibits the use
of incinerators.
- Garbage pickers are free to enter the landfill. The cell containing the medical wastes is not
enclosed with a fence. So these people are not only exposed to accidents but are also in danger
of contracting diseases from hospital wastes.
- The landfill has a total design capacity of 938,400 cubic meters (compacted) and a lifetime of about
6 to 7 years. It is now 4 years in operation and is nearing its life. Added to this is the difficulty in
acquiring land for a new landfill.
- Lack of soil covering made the waste disposal area inaccessible to the collection trucks.
Consequently, the waste is dumped outside of the dumping area making the landfill more
unsanitary.
- The leachate is discharged directly to the sea without treatment. The existing leachate pond only
functions as a storage pond, not as a treatment facility.
- Absence of a landfilling plan has made it unsanitary, its waste disposal area has become
inaccessible, and the leachate has overflowed to the sea..
The main problem with medical waste management is the failure of the city to clarify the designated

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agency responsible for the collection, transportation and disposal of medical wastes. Hospitals do not
acknowledge at present that it is their responsibility to properly manage their wastes.

Outline of Practices/Actions:
Considering the magnitude of the problems that the city is facing, the city has taken steps to address its
problems.
- Capacity Building: Aware that project sustainability depends on strong and improved executing body
and institutional system, a four-man team from the office of the Department Public Services (DPS)
underwent a 3-week training on Solid Waste Management in Hoofddorp Haarlemmermeer,
Netherlands.
- Public Information, Education and Communication: The city has tapped the assistance of NGOs, such
as the Lihok Filipina that has undertaken a community-based solid waste management project in 7
city barangays..
- Waste Segregation at Source: The city's DPS, in coordination with NGOs, conducted waste
segregation projects in several barangays of the city.
- Improvement of Waste Separation and Recycling at Disposal Area: Steps to improve the waste
separation and materials recovery area at the landfill has been undertaken, such as redesigning the
empty storage facility.
- Medical Waste Management: Hospital and clinic wastes are segregated into infectious and
non-infectious wastes during storage. The city is presently gathering information from all hospitals
in the city, needed in establishing system of collection for infectious waste. For disposal, a separate
area in the landfill has been designated and fenced as the area for medical wastes.
- Industrial Waste Treatment: The common treatment facility for liquid wastes particularly
electroplating wastes is situated adjacent to the city’s sanitary landfill. The waste treatment facility
handles liquid electroplating wastes from private industrial establishments operating.
- Composting and Recycling: The city has been practicing waste segregation and organic farming.
Each day a personnel from the City Agriculture Department collects at least one ton of biodegradable
garbage from the Carbon market. The garbage materials are dumped into the composting facility,
which makes use of the technology of trichoderma. The compost facility seeks to convert
biodegradable garbage into organic fertiliser. The project has the goal of encouraging the practice of
waste segregation as well as recycling among Cebuanos. One ton of garbage produces an output of
350 kilos of organic fertiliser, which will be utilised by dermofarm located at the nursery.
- Energy Conservation: The Committee on Energy, Transportation, Communication and Other Utilities
has begun negotiations with the University of San Carlos-affiliated Non-conventional Energy Centre
for the construction of a 50 cubic meter biogas digester.
- Efficient Garbage Collection System: The city has 63 garbage-collecting vehicles. In addition to this,
3 large private trucks supplement the city's public collection. Moreover, the city hopes to acquire
trash compactors and high-pressure washers to be utilised in the sanitary landfill through the
assistance of its sister city, Haarlemmermeer of the Netherlands.

Results/Impacts

With the help of, among others, its sister city of Haarlemmermeer of the Netherlands, Cebu has
undertaken institutional capacity building, increased the public information on the matter, improved the
working and health conditions of the waste pickers, and reached a better management of medical waste.
Furthermore, the city is currently undertaking composting. Through the institutionalisation of the
compost/organic fertiliser facility at the city nursery, the city has been practicing waste segregation and
organic farming.

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 Keys for success

- Conduct of waste minimisation activities, such as recycling and composting.

- Conduct of medical waste management.
- Management of a good landfill system.

Critical Instruments

Awareness, Partnership, Self-Regulation, Design Planning and Management

Lessons Learned

The city needs to realise that it is far more important to focus all efforts in the upper waste stream.
Reducing the amount of wastes generated at the source will spell a difference since this will also reduce
the waste loads at the disposal area. Large waste recycling centres such as those developed in other
countries may not be applicable for the city because of the city's relatively low figures in the percentage
of recyclable materials in wastes, however, other waste minimisation activities such as composting and
small-scale recycling could be good for Cebu City. A biogas digester will have the added benefit of
energy conservation.
Waste segregation is another worthy activity. This has not been widely practiced in the household
level due to the insufficiency of the city's information campaign to the community. On the other hand,
this activity is quite popular in the hospitals as wastes there, are segregated and properly labelled.
However, the effort may be considered useless after all because the segregated wastes are collectively
collected in one truck, all combining what is inside. This needs special attention requiring concerted
efforts from the city, hospital management and the DENR.

Applicability

Composting and recycling activities are practical and inexpensive and the technology involved is
simple and easy. These activities can be replicated in developing countries especially in the Asian
region because of the similarity of the waste composition and socio-economic structure of these
countries.

References

Reports provided by local governments attending the First Thematic Seminar on Solid Waste
Management (19-20 September 2002).

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 Contact

Managing Director
City Administration, Cebu City
5th Floor Annex Building, M.C. Briones Street, Cebu City, PHILIPPINES
TEL: +63-32-412-1859, FAX: +63-32-256-2528
meljn@cebucity.gov.ph

Provider of this information

Thilde MØller Larsen

ESCAP,