PRESSED to solve its huge garbage problem, the Dagupan city government will revive its non-functioning materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in every barangay in a bid to reduce the volume of garbage being brought to the city’s dumpsite daily to the barest minimum.

This was disclosed by Councilor Librada Reyna, chair of the city council committee on environment, who said this must be done soonest as the problem of garbage in metropolitan Dagupan has already become critical.

Reyna said there are 11 MRFs built by the past city administration using people’s money but were never operational ever since.

Members of the city council led by Vice Mayor Belen Fernandez discovered the non-functioning MRFs when they visited the different barangays in connection with a proposed legislation seeking to make waste segregation a must in every home here.

Adding to the city’s garbage woes is the faint chance of
Dagupan to recover its 31-hectare land in barangay Awai, San Jacinto that was earlier envisioned for sanitary landfill from the coverage of the agrarian reform program.

The MRFs are receptacle-like structures where the solid wastes collected from every home undergo further segregation to make sure that only a little fraction of the original volume goes to the overflowing dumpsite in Bonuan.

Each of the 31 barangays is now in charge of collecting garbage from every home in its area.

Reyna lauded the MRF in barangay Lucao which was observed to be very effective in managing the wastes in the area despite its being only an improvised facility.

Reyna lamented that since the enactment by Congress of Republic Act. No. 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act, no local legislation has been passed supporting the same. (PNA)