Envi group reacts to govt's waste-to-energy 'obsession': 'This is not a solution'

While inspecting the clearing operations along the Baclaran River in Parañaque city after non-stop rains revealed a sea of garbage, President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. said the government "will push" for waste-to-energy as a way to manage waste.

"Imbes na dadalhin sa landfill, dadalhin na lang sa waste-to-energy plant. So, tinitignan natin yung location para naman hindi masyadong malaki ang bayaran ng LGU para sa hauling," Marcos told reporters on Wednesday.

(Instead of bringing the garbage to landfills, it will be brought to the waste-to-energy plant. So, we’re checking the location to minimize the hauling costs for local government units.)

But environmental group Oceana said this isn't the solution.

In a statement, Von Hernandez, Vice President of Oceana said that "while Malacañang in its latest pronouncement fixates on ‘waste-to-energy’ as a silver bullet and scolds the public for littering, it is willfully ignoring the root of this catastrophe: the relentless, unchecked flood of single-use plastics—sachets, styrofoam, and plastic bags—being pumped into our economy by major corporations.”

"You cannot burn, process, or manage your way out of a crisis when the tap is gushing at full force," he added.

"We are choking on 163 million sachets a day, and the official response is to build more incinerators to process what we can’t recycle. This is not a solution—it is a subsidy for polluters, a source of toxic air pollution, and a debt trap for local governments,” Hernandez continued.

He pointed to the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or Republic Act 9003, which "already provides a clear roadmap: reduce plastic at the source and ban non-environmentally acceptable products.”

“Yet the National Solid Waste Management Commission has sat on its hands, refusing to implement the ban, while the DENR now champions incineration disguised as 'waste-to-energy," he continued.

During his State of the Nation Address, Marcos had already mentioned his plans to amend the 25-year-old law to align with modern waste management practices including waste-to-energy, much to environmental groups' chagrin.

Said Aksyon Klima Pilipinas' national coordinator, JL Algo, it isn't the solution, pointing to "the adverse impacts of WTE on environment and communities such as the situation in the Smokey Mountain area."

Greenpeace Philippines campaigner Jefferson Chua added that WTE is among the false solutions that "delay our transition to renewable energy."

According to Raffy Tima's 24 Oras report on Tuesday, some 300 tons of garbage was cleared from the Baclaran estero after the heavy rains.

“Ipinapakita lang talaga na grabe na talaga ang sitwasyon ng basura natin. Talagang ako, sasabihin ko na garbage crisis na talaga ’to,” DPWH sectary Vince Dizon said.

(It really shows how dire our waste situation has become. Personally, I would go so far as to call this a garbage crisis.)

Residents living near the estero said they have never seen this much trash in the waterway before, including Clarita Medina, who has been a vendor in Baclaran since 1979.

“Nagulat na lang kami, pumapasok na ‘yung mga dumi. Galing ho sa dagat 'yan,” Medina said, adding this is the first time she's seen the estero completely filled with garbage. — GMA News