Former Senator John Osmeña yesterday said is setting up an integrated waste management facility in Negros Occidental that will recycle waste and turn biodegradable garbage into fertilizer.

Osmeña said he has yet to decide on the site but he is hoping to tap the waste from Bacolod, Bago,  Silay Talisay and Victorias cities and Murcia town.

We will salvage metal, plastics, paper and glass from the waste for recycling, and put earthworms into biodegradable garbage to create vermicast, a much cheaper fertilizer for the sugar industry that could sell at P300 a bag against petroleum-based fertilizer selling at P1,800 a bag, he said.

This will be a zero waste effort with all the garbage turned into something useful, he said.

But I would need the commitment from local governments that they are willing to use my company for their waste disposal, he said, since he will put money into the site for the facility and the dumptrucks.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has warned local officials whose areas still maintain open dumpsites, including 12 in Negros Occidental, to close these facilities within six months, or charges will be filed against them.

A list of open dumpsites of the National Solid Waste Management Commission, as of the fourth quarter of 2007, shows that 12 of the 826 listed are in Negros Occidental.

These are located in Brgy. Felisa, Bacolod City; Sitio Pandan, Brgy. Ma-ao, Bago City; Sitio Minubuno, Brgy. Tigbon, Calatrava; Brgy. Mabini, Escalante City; Brgy. Iglau-an, Murcia; Hacienda Coscolluela, Brgy. Poblacion II, Sagay City; Brgy. Poblacion, San Enrique; Brgy. E. Lopez, Silay City; Brgy. Gil Montilla, Sipalay City; Zone III, Brgy. Catabla, Talisay City; and Hacienda San Ramon, Victorias City.

Gov. Isidro Zayco said some of the mayors of the areas that still have open dumpsites asked Presidential Management Staff Secretary Cerge Remonde yesterday for a meeting with Environment Secretary Lito Atienza.

The mayors want an extension of the deadline for the setting up of sanitary landfills because they do not have enough funds to get them ready in six months, he said.

Zayco, when informed of Osmeña’s plan, said it is a welcome development because that is what the mayors need.

Perhaps a meeting between Osmeña and the mayors can be arranged on the matter, the governor said.

Osmeña said he has moved his residence to Negros Occidental and is building a house in Silay City.

Aside from the waste management facility, he is also working on developing the former Mirasol wharf, near the BREDCO port in Bacolod City, that was bought by the Bacolod Terminals and Real Estate, a corporation that he is involved with.

He is also bringing in his cattle from Negros Oriental for fattening in Bacolod and is going into the low-cost housing business, Osmeña said.*CPG

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