CATARMAN, Northern Samar - Northern Samar Gov. Raul Daza and other local officials of the province declared zero waste management (ZWM) as its framework and long term goal for the province.

In a regular session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan on May 19, the board members affirmed that ZWM framework us a better option to adopt in addressing problem on waste disposal.

With this resolution, “the Provincial Government of Northern Samar earns the distinction of being the first province in the Philippines to declare a province-wide ZWM,” said Sonia Mendoza, president of the Mother Earth Foundation (MEF) and member of the Zero Waste International Alliance Planning Group.

The main reason that prompted the province to adopt the framework is because of the huge cost involved in establishing sanitary landfill which majority of the municipalities in the province could not afford.

Republic Act 9003, or the “Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000,” provides only sanitary landfills as final disposal sites.

The province also decided to adopt ZWM framework as it provides a cyclical and more ecology-friendly model of waste management which respects the laws of nature and recognizes that everything is a natural resource and can be returned to nature and where all discarded materials are regarded as resources for others to use.

As in RA 9003, the ZWM also upholds the practice of reduce, reuse, repair, recycle, and compost. But in ZWM framework, the placement of materials in waste disposal facilities such as landfills, incinerators, or any form of disposal sites as final destination of solid wastes is discouraged because these can cause damage to human health, misuse of natural resources, and wrongly transfer liabilities to future generations.

It also encourages the establishment of materials recovery facilities (MRFs) in barangays, schools, offices, workplaces, and other establishments where discards can be reused, recycled, repaired, and composted.

If networks of MRFs are installed in the barangays, these will ease up the burden of municipal LGUs in the collection and disposal of wastes and maintenance of a largely unpopular “dumpsites” as they will concentrate only on the “residual wastes”.

“With ZWM framework in mind, municipalities with existing dumpsites will then be able to convert them into municipal level MRFs where collected residuals from barangay level MRFs are stored, recycled, and or processed further into materials useful to man or are returned safely to Mother Earth,” Daza said.

Back to HOME	Last Updated: June 13, 2006