(Photo by Jennyrose Bitago)

By Percy Roxas

OLONGAPO CITY – The city’s Environmental Sanitation Management Office (ESMO) rolled out the citywide implementation of “No Segregation, No Collection” garbage disposal scheme on June 19 amid mixed reactions from residents.

ESMO issued a new garbage disposal schedule for city’s 17 barangays to mark the official launching of the implementation on the same day following an intensive campaign to disseminate information and spread awareness among the city residents since last year. 

Still, as of June 23, many city residents were apparently still not ready for the stricter segregated collection and segregation-at-source policy, based on the comments and feedback that flooded the social media in recent days. 

According to Loreli Licasa, department head of ESMO, the “No Segregation, No Collection” policy has been implemented in the city since 2000s.

“People cannot say they are not aware of this because this policy was being implemented since then. And with some 180-250 tons of garbage collected daily in 

Olongapo, people should take this implementation policy more seriously,” said Ricasa

In Barangay Pag-asa, a purok leader who requested anonymity, observed that many residents were still confused about the new guidelines and not really segregating their waste.

“We still see indiscriminate dumping of waste in many barangays, despite the massive information and education campaign conducted by the ESMO since last year!” the purok leader noted.

Pag-asa, along with Asinan, New Kalalake and Banicain, was supposed to be one of the first barangays selected for the pilot testing of the new garbage disposal scheme, but New Kalalake was later designated as the pilot barangay for the plan. 

With the official rollout of the garbage disposal policy implementation, many of the 17 barangays are facing several challenges that came with the implementation of the segregated collection and segregation-at-source scheme.  

Many residents were quick to point out that sightings of garbage in the streets are becoming more common now than as never before.

“With the strict implementation, ESMO refused to collect unsegregated garbage, leaving them on site to pile up until those in the neighborhood segregates them properly again. Thus, more unsightly garbage and wastes are being seen on the streets of Olongapo, and potentially posing health hazards in the neighborhoods,” said Joel Santos, a vendor in Pag-asa market

According to a report by ESMO during a special meeting held to assess the success of the pilot implementation of the No Segregation, No Collection policy, these challenges include the overall lack of readiness of residents on following the segregation-at-source and many residents were not really segregating.

Garbage marshals were also reportedly not present during the scheduled collection dates; while the barangays and ESMO were inconsistent in their efforts.

For instance, the inconsistent time of collection has created confusion among many residents. 

The constant breakdown of ESMO trucks were also considered a factor, as this causes delays in scheduled collection.

Another reason pointed out was that residents are still not disposing their trashes properly at pick-up points, and thus house-to-house collection was still being practiced. 

One major point of contention was the collection of bio-degradable waste, specifically food waste and animal manure. With the bi-weekly collection schedule implemented in Barangay Kalalake, an average of five drums (120 liters) of food waste alone were being collected and transported to the Olongapo City Materials Recovery Facility.

“The stricter implementation of the garbage disposal policy should foster a change in the garbage disposal behavior of the residents,” said Ricasa

 “But up to now, it has only brought out to the forefront the people’s lack of discipline. Proper disposal of segregated garbage is everyone’s responsibility because we all produce and generate them.” she added. FREEPORT INSIDER