Batangas City – A cutting-edge 200-million-peso automated Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is unveiled today aimed at dramatically enhancing the recyclable waste processing capacity of the entire Batangas and other provinces.
This facility is introduced by Filipino company Macaraig Group of Companies (MGC) through its subsidiaries, BlueEnviron Material Recovery, Inc and Wastecon, Inc., established waste management services providers. The company said that this facility, part of a multi-year, multi-billion initiative, is paving the way for the widespread use of automated MRFs in the country to improve efficiency and accuracy in the waste management processes.
“This MRF is the first in our five-year, 13.2 billion-peso waste management pipeline project that we are introducing nationwide. We believe that with the launch of this automated MRF, we can finally put an end to open dumpsites, help prolong the lifespan of sanitary landfills and open new ways in recovering waste that will lead to zero waste in the future,” said Allen A. Macaraig, chairman of MGC.
Macaraig disclosed that this project is made possible through its partnership with the local government of Batangas City and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The project also includes a plan to establish more MRFs, in partnership with the different local government units (LGUs) not only in Batangas, but also in neighboring regions in the country.
The facility will house an exceptionally efficient and innovative waste segregation machine capable of receiving, sorting, processing, and storing compostable and recyclable material from the waste management programs of the province in an efficient and environmentally-sound manner.
Examples of compostable materials include food scraps (vegetable and fruit peels) and yard waste (leaves and twigs) while recyclable materials include plastics, paper products, glass bottles and metal containers.
“Until today, waste sorting is still largely done manually in existing MRFs in the country. Unfortunately, this outdated process in MRFs results in inefficiency, inaccuracy and inconsistency in segregation of waste, poses a high safety and health risk to MRF workers and there is a low recovery tons per day (TPD) rate of materials that usually end up in landfills,” added Macaraig.
The establishment of the MRF facility in a 20,000-sqm. property of MGC in Barangay San Jose Sico, Batangas City is in compliance with Sec. 32 of RA 9003 or otherwise known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Considered as one of the largest MRFs in the Philippines today, MGC’s automatic municipal waste sorting line has a capacity of up to 25 tons per hour or 400 tons per day of only 16 hours of work.
“Building this state-of-the-art MRF is MGC’s way of forging an active partnership with the Batangas City LGU and the DENR to ensure the protection of public health and the environment through a systematic, comprehensive, and ecological waste management as mandated by RA 9003,” said Andrew Yap, president of BlueEnviron.
Macaraig is the lead architect in bringing BlueEnviron to Batangas City in support of the LGU’s environmental efforts of coming up with a solid waste management program and enticing the business sector to invest and promote the city. With this strong partnership among various stakeholders, the capital of the province will be at the forefront of providing an eco-friendly, sustainable, and innovative waste management in the country.| BALIKAS News
