Every single day, Dagupan City faces a mountain of garbage, up to 70 tons, from different barangays.

City officials are doubling efforts to keep the streets clean, especially in the busy downtown area.

Dagupan City collects about 60 to 70 tons of garbage every day from various barangays. This waste used to be stored in the barangay Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs), but the city has changed its strategy to keep communities cleaner.

“Tungkol naman sa mga MRF sa barangay, talagang inalis natin yan kasi pag marumi ang barangay, damay po ang syudad,” Bernard Cabison, Chief of the Dagupan City Waste Management Division (WMD), said.

The WMD now focuses its efforts on barangays inside the Central Business District (CBD). This area gets a lot of foot traffic not just from locals, but also from visitors coming from nearby towns and provinces.

“Ang CBD ang tinututukan natin kasi dito pumupunta ang mga karatig probinsya o bayan,” Cabison said.

One of the areas benefiting from the clean-up is Barangay II & III. Their daily clearing operations ensure that garbage doesn’t sit around long enough to stink up the neighborhood.

“Malaking tulong po ‘yan sa barangay lalo sa constituent sa barangay kasi malinis ‘yung kapaligiran namin,” Babylyn Salvador, a barangay secretary, said.

Once collected, all trash is brought by WMD trucks to the city’s waste transfer facility, away from residential areas.