The city government here, together with private garbage contractor IPM Construction and Development Corp. (CDC), has stepped up initiatives for biodegradable waste composting to limit disposal in the engineered sanitary landfill and reduce carbon footprint.

As of Tuesday, some 1.5 tons of fruits and vegetables waste collected from the city’s two major markets are undergoing composting at an organic farm in neighboring Silay City, which uses a shredder and a windrow turner machine made by the Bacolod-based RU Foundry and Machine Shop Corp.

After three weeks, the compost product will be donated to urban farms.

Edmond Maceda, senior environmental consultant engineer, said the city government needs more recipients to accommodate the volume of biowaste being generated in the markets daily.

About a ton of biowaste will also be brought to the University of St. La Salle’s Bahay Pag-asa in Barangay Granada, also implementing a composting program.

In a statement, the IPM-CDC Waste Management Bacolod said that as they want to ensure that high-quality compost or soil enhancers is produced, they also envision the community changing its behavior towards waste and seeing biowaste as a valuable resource in compliance with Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

“We are doing information, education, and communication campaigns to start segregation at source for biowaste and to ensure there are no plastic, residual or other waste included in the batch we will be sending to certain composting sites around and in the city of Bacolod,” it added. (PNA)