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There is no easy solution to garbage problem.
By Dean Jorge Bocobo

THE recent tragedy at the Payatas dumpsite has refocused public attention on the need for remedies and alternatives to the current approach of open field dumping or landfills. There is a range of complexity, feasibility, urgency and cost that government policymakers have to consider against the benefit and well-being of a public that has largely ignored the problem. 

Open field dumping is only slightly better than not collecting garbage at all. Under current practice, there is no segregation of the types of waste that can end up in the dump sites. Wet, dry, commercial, industrial, solid, liquid, biological, hazardous, recyclable or not, feedlot wastes, hospital wastes, radioactive wasters, animal carcasses (and now human cadavers) all end up in Metro Manila's dumps with no regard for environmental and health hazards. As the organic components rot, methane gas and other products of decomposition build up and self-ignite, resulting in the "smoking mountains" of trash. Because the garbage is readily accessible, scavenging becomes a source of livelihood and permanent dwelling for urban destitutes as well as income for local officials who control access to the dumps. 
Recycling of urban wastes has been identified as an effective means of substantially reducing the volumes of garbage destined for open dump sites or sanitary landfills. However, garbage segregation at their sources, namely everyone's homes, offices, factories, farms, everywhere in the metropolitan area, is required to make recycling work. 

The availability of economic incentives to recycling, such as the repurchase of aluminum and steel cans and glass bottles has been an important factor in the success of recycling programs in other countries, as is a high degree of social discipline and civic-mindedness. 

To many environmentalists, recycling, together with source segregation and composting, is the only solution. But this would require extensive community organizing and a comprehensive public education program. The Metro Manila Development Authority tried but failed to initiate a recycling program last year. But some non-government organizations like the Linis Ganda has done an impressive start in organizing communities around recycling activities.  Sanitary landfills are a preferred approach in many countries like the United States. This basically involves burying garbage under carefully specified conditions. The process entails fumigating and covering garbage with topsoil before it is leveled into pits. Clay liners underneath the pits collect landfill gases and catch the poisonous leachate to prevent it from mixing with ground water. The leachate flow into treatment ponds where they are treated and purified. 

The safety of landfills depends on their operations being strictly supervised and regulated. Much of the public opposition to the San Mateo landfill stem from poor management which led to serious public health problems to surrounding areas. 

Incineration as an option has the potential for significantly reducing the waste stream that go into dumpsites or landfills. However, there are significant economic costs involved both in the facilities and personnel required, as well as the perceived environmental dangers.  According to a US Environment Protection Agency study, these facilities can emit significant amounts of toxic contaminants such as dioxin, furans, mercury, lead, cadmium, and products of incomplete combustion. 

In the United States, incineration facilities have become largely uneconomic, with many going out of business. However, the large number of hospital incinerators indicates that for biological wastes, incineration is still the only readily available safe option, though again disciplined segregation of plastics and other sources of undesirable atmospheric pollutants is needed.  For the problems of hazardous industrial and hospital biological wastes, there are a large number of highly specialized but prohibitively expensive alternatives. These include: 

Separation and removal technologies to reduce the content of heavy metals or biological contaminants from waste material before they are directed to incinerators and landfills. Examples include magnetic separation of metallic or radioactive materials from waste streams and composites; solvent extraction using gas or chemical treatments; bioprocessing involving the use of certain types of bacteria to reduce or modify dangerous components prior to disposal; Stabilization and immobilization strategies include such methods as microwave melting or modification of inorganic and biological wastes which neutralize them to benign forms and crystalline or solid masses not likely to be dispersed; Destruction technologies that don't involve incineration include some advanced technologies such as electrochemical and electromagnetic dissolution of waste materials. 

Homegrown suggestions include dumping into mineshafts and volcanoes on isolated islands, as well as local variants of many of the abovementioned technologies. However, it is likely that public concern and involvement as well as official action are in fact the missing factors needed for a satisfactory solution.