Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of the Second District of Bohol is bullish on producing energy from residual waste.
Aumentado met last week with a waste-to-energy expert to discuss where and how his constituency can participate.
He said waste to energy calls for the segregation of waste. Biodegradable waste can be fodder for biomass energy or, at least, can be turned into organic fertilizer. But, the solon quoted the expert, residuals can be turned into energy, as well.
This, the solon said, is where his constituents can be motivated to better implemented Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
Waste to energy is a two-pronged approach to contribute to mitigating climate change, he said.
On top of pushing for zero waste at the household level, turning residuals to power means less bulk for landfills, savings in tipping fees and contribution to the longer lifespans of sanitary landfills.
The solon said once landfills are filled to capacity, a local government unit operating it must look for another site to contain residual waste. Bohol may be the country’s 10th- largest island, but it does not have the luxury of space.
Aumentado said Bohol is basically agricultural and ecological. In order to feed the people, landfills and space-intensive solar panels must not compete for space with agricultural lands and the imperative forest cover. After all, he said, agriculture and tourism are the province’s economic drivers.
Power generated from residuals, the solon said, will also be the Second District’s contribution to locally generated energy.
Aumentado said only the power industry approves of, and even requires, redundancy. This is so that business will not come to a standstill when one source experiences breakdowns like what happened to the Tongonan Geothermal Power Plant in Leyte, following the recent 6.5-magnitude earthquake and, before that, Supertyphoon Yolanda (international code name Haiyan) in 2013.
Leyte is Bohol’s main power source. Unless the latter produces more locally generated power, it will always endure long rotational blackouts, he explained.
The downside to this is the slowing down of business, especially tourism, due to higher overhead costs in operation. After all, in most cases, water distribution is also dependent on power.
Aumentado broached the topic to the Second District mayors in one of their meetings at the Quest Hotel in Cebu City. He said the mayors have committed their support to the waste-to-energy project by more stringent implementation of RA 9003.