CATBALOGAN CITY – The city government here is now in negotiation with Quantum International, a Europe-based company, for a possible establishment of a regional plasma waste treatment facility capable of processing and disposing municipal and even industrial solid wastes. City Mayor Stephany Uy-Tan said during her State of the City Address(Sona) on Monday(August 10),the proposed waste treatment facility well help address the worsening issue of solid waste disposal of the city and recycle them instead into reusable products.

Plasma gasification is an emerging technology which can process landfill waste to extract commodity recyclables and convert carbon-based materials into fuels. It can form an integral component in a system to achieve zero-waste and produce renewable fuels, whilst caring for the environment. Plasma arc processing has been used for years to treat hazardous waste, such as incinerator ash and chemical weapons, and convert them into non-hazardous slag. The value of the plasma technology is that it would address not only garbage disposal problems, but also power supply concerns. Processing of 1,000 tons of wastes could generate 1,000 megawatts of power. The plant could be used to produce not only electricity but also gasoline, kerosene and biofuels.

A plasma gasification plant can start commercial operations after 18 months of construction, it was learned. In a study in 2010 by the Samar State University, it was revealed that the city government of Catbalogan was having difficulties in developing management plans due to the lack of solid waste management baseline information and data related to the functional elements of solid waste management. The study further recommended that the Catbalogan city government to seriously undertake material resource recovery and recycling programs as well as provide technical facilities, intensive awareness campaign and strict implementation of the solid waste management law. “Finally, we are having concrete steps and tangible results in our efforts to address the waste problem in the city,” Tan said. Meanwhile, Tan announced that they are starting the implementation of a privatized garbage collection in the city.
(AHLETTE C. REYES)

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources regional office 8 (DENR 8) this city is planting over 120,000 hectares of forestlands in Eastern Visayas as part of the six year National Greening Program (NGP) of the national government. The reforestation program was started in 2011 and will conclude this year which targeted to plant over 100 million seedlings in a 121,023.8 hectares of forestlands in Region 8. “Thisnumber of hectares reforested shall serve as the share of Eastern Visayas to the total nationwide target of the NGP,” DENR 8 Regional Director Leonardo Sibbaluca said. Sibbaluca said the NGP, which is the banner program of the department, seeks to grow 1.5 billion trees in 1.5 million hectares nationwide within a period of six years. However, DENR-8 has established another 15,686.5-hectare of NGP site for planting with over 17.5 million seedlings of various species this 2016. Sibbaluca said that he is optimistic that DENR-8 will hit the target for this year or even surpass considering that as of this month of June his office has already attained an accomplishment of more than fifty percent of the target area for reforestation. Under the program, the DENR is mandated to spearhead the implementation of this massive greening program, report on the social mobilization as an effective strategy in accomplishing the region’s targets and in attaining NGP’s quad goals of food security, poverty reduction, biodiversity conservation, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. DENR-8 likewise reported that different sectors of society has helped in the last five years in the successful establishment of NGP sitesthroughout the region which totals to an aggregate area of 105,337.3 hectareswhich surpassed the target of 103,204.1 hectares. This has been planted with almost 93 million seedlings from 2011- 2015. (RESTITUTO CAYUBIT)