Dumaguete City’s efforts on waste management to beat plastic pollution has slowly gained recognition for properly managing its garbage through its sustained operation of a material recovery facility (MRF).

This was cited by Dumaguete City Environment and Natural Resources Officer, Engineer Chilvier Patrimonio in a Kapihan sa PIA Forum in observance of this month’s Philippine Environment with the theme “No to Waste: Advancing circular economy to #BeatPlasticPollution.”

Patrimonio said the city has been getting credit for its solid waste management.

With this, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Central Visayas lauded Dumaguete for a commitment to ensure a clean and healthy environment through its integrated solid waste disposal management facility.

However, despite some initiatives to beat plastic litter and the implementation of City Ordinance 231 that regulates plastic use, Patrimonio said it did not have much effect on the total volume of waste produced in the city due to some factors.

She said the ordinance needs to be amended as it only regulated secondary packaging and did not ban the use of plastic, while establishments and consumers use it liberally.

With that, Maria Theresa Quijano of the Community Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) has urged the public to practice the 5Rs to prevent plastic pollution with four actions that need to be taken prior to recycling: refuse, reduce, reuse, repurpose, and then recycle to minimize waste.

In the same forum, Quijano also pushed for a circular economy model to help solve the plastic crisis in the city as well as in the province.

“When we say circular economy, we talk about the material life span of the waste we are producing and mitigating climate change,” Quijano said.

With the passage of Extended Producers Responsibility, businesses are obliged or liable to collect, recycle or reuse the product that they produced and is being sold to and used by consumers.

For his part, Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Officer Viernov Grefalde urged the public to practice or follow the 5Rs and support local government units to implement their own environmental ordinances.

He cited the importance of information dissemination on environmental protection through community engagement that will help the city and the province control their waste. (PIA-7 Negros Oriental)