Until such time that a disposal facility is set up by the city government, the hauling of garbage to Capas in Tarlac will continue.

Mayor Mauricio Domogan during the weekly Ugnayan, said that if the disposal facility of Baguio will not yet be completed, the city has no recourse but to haul the garbage to Capas.

He said that in as much as the city wants to stop the hauling, it cannot yet do so. The mayor said this after making the announcement that he will stop the hauling of the garbage to Capas in two months time after seating as the city’s chief executive.

The city, he said, still has budget allocation for hauling, thus he sees no problem in as far as the funds for hauling is concerned.

The mayor, however, said that they are fast-tracking the importation of a Japanese technology that will process the biodegradable wastes of the city, which averages from 40 to 46 tons a day.

The new Japanese technology, the mayor explained, is capable of converting 24 tons of biodegradable to fertilizers generated at one time. Two pieces of the equipment will be purchased by the city.

In as far as the recyclable and residual wastes is concerned, the same thing being done in the past will continue to be implemented. Recyclables will be reused and residuals will be converted to other products which can be a source of income or be sold to recyclers and junkshops to be converted to other useful purposes.

He pointed out that the city hopes to do a direct importation of the new technology for faster delivery. The amount to be used is the P100 million plus amount which was appropriated for the year 2010.

Prior to the end of the term of former mayor Peter Rey Bautista, a budget of P187 M was set aside which can be used to address the garbage problem of the city.

This amount was specifically earmarked for waste disposal.

Sto. Tomas, which the mayor has identified as the site of the engineered sanitary landfill even when he was congressman remains to be the priority site of the city for the said purpose.

Domogan said that he hopes the city would be able to get the social acceptability from the residents of the place so that the ESL would already be started. It will take a minimum of one year for the ESL to become operational where the city’s residual wastes will be dumped.

An ESL uses a disposal scheme which is very much different from the open dumping people know because of the Irisan dumpsite.

Once filled, it will not look like the Irisan mountain of garbage but will look like a mountain where garbage will not be visible.