Abstract:
The Philippines, with a total current population of 116 million people generates an approximately 46,400 metric tons of municipal waste daily. The waste in general is collected with a portion recovered through small-scale (barangay or municipal level) Materials Recovery Facilities, and then dumped in Sanitary Landfills. While there are Philippine laws in effect, the implementation is not perfect and a large portion of the waste ends up in open dumpsite which pollutes the water body. The high value materials in the Municipal Solid Waste include recyclables (PET and glass bottles), papers, ferrous materials, and mixed plastic waste. In the most urban areas in the Philippines which includes the Metro cities, recyclables and mixed plastic waste can vary from 50-60% of the total weight of the received waste. This large percentage if not recovered will end up in Sanitary landfills or open dumpsite - a lost opportunity for the economy and for sustainability. Since early 2000, the cement plants in the Philippines have started using alternative fuels in the form of Refuse Derived Fuels (RDFs) to replace coal. However, because the segregation and recovery of the waste using the small-scale MRFs has not covered more than 40% of the produced, getting stable quantity of feed is a challenge towards using RDFs. In 2024, the build and operation of private large scale Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs) with a capacity of 1000-3000 tons per day has started in the Visayas and North Luzon. This is a big step toward securing the feed to produce RDFs. These facilities aim to recover mixed plastics and then process it through pre-shredding, sieving, air separation, drying, and fine screening - to have a final output in size, moisture content, and calorific value required for RDFs of cement plants. The combined capacity of the existing large private MRFS and small-scale MRFs is less than 50% of the generated waste, which still gives a lot of opportunities for other private companies to enter the waste sector. Using RDFs as an alternative to coal can decrease greenhouse gases, reduce water body pollution, and reduce the land needed for landfill. It also reverses the chain - using fossil fuel to make plastic by turning the plastic into fuel again. It is still a long, difficult process for a developing country like the Philippines to mature in waste management and waste-to-fuel process but the wheels are already in motion. Leila MercadoBorbon-Laya is a Registered Chemical Engineer by profession and has more than 18 years of experience in the industry - particularly in the engineering design, testing & commissioning, and project management of Water and Wastewater Treatment facilities. She has devised several water and wastewater treatment systems, including the treatment of Palladium wastewater which received an Excellence award at the 2010 Ibiden TPM convention in Ogaki, Japan. Leila has received President’s Award from Manila Water in 2015, 2017, and 2018. She has worked on different projects across Asia and the Middle East.
Page(s):
39-40
DOI:
DOI not available
Published:
Journal: 1st International Conference on "Recent Advances in Green Biotechnology and Climate Resilience", September 15-16, 2025, Volume: 1, Issue: 1, Year: 2025