Dagupan City has reduced the daily trips of its seven garbage trucks from three or four to just two.

The trucks now deliver the city’s trash to a private processing plant in Barangay Catablan, Urdaneta City. Each truck carries about 14 tons per trip, as the city generates up to 70 tons of garbage daily.

Bernard Cabison, head of the Dagupan City Waste Management Division, said the reduction will not lead to uncollected garbage.

“Hindi po tayo maiipunan kasi doon sa datos natin, talagang mauubos natin, maibabyahe natin ‘yung mga basura ng Dagupan,” Cabison said.

In Barangay Malued, daily trash collection has dropped from four to two tons per day due to strict waste segregation. Officials hope the amount will drop further with the relaunch of Project WOW or War on Waste, which aims to increase the volume of compostable waste.

The barangay will use a demo unit of a 24-hour rapid food waste composting machine while waiting for a full unit to arrive, marking the first such initiative in Dagupan.

“Puwede pala nating i-recycle ‘yung mga nabubulok na basura. And it’s about time. It’s about time that we will make that change not just for our community but for the whole Philippines,” Aiza Christina Sinlao Maulion of EcoDrive Global said.

“Alam naman natin, nakita niyo, out of nabubulok, nagiging lupa na siya in 24 hours… income-generating sa barangay, kasi ‘yung isang pack nun, ‘yung isang kilo nun, hindi mo naman gagamitin na isa lang eh. Puwedeng ihalo sa isang sako,” Barangay Malued chairperson Filipinas Delos Santos added.

Biodegradable waste is collected every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, while non-biodegradable waste is collected on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday.