MALVAR, Batangas—With a population of 65,000, Malvar is a second-class municipality in Batangas that has experienced rapid urbanization over the years.
This resulted in a 25 percent increase in waste generation, which led to challenges in waste collection and disposal, a news release said.
Of its 3,300 hectares land area, the municipality only has less than 1,700 hectares of remaining farmlands left, which were surrounded by three river systems.
This meant that operating a landfill was no longer feasible based on the Land Use Program.
To address this issue, the Malvar LGU, while searching for a sustainable and efficient waste-disposal solution, first approached ecoloop in 2014. ecoloop is the resource recovery and co-processing arm of Republic Cement.
Co-processing helps reduce waste that end up in landfills and bodies of water, providing total and co mplete disposal with no byproducts.
Moreover, co-processing reduces the consumption of nonrenewable resources of energy, thereby, also lowering carbon footprint in the cement manufacturing process.
Through its Waste-for-Cement program, ecoloop offered the Malvar a way to dispose of residual plastic waste in exchange for cement that they can use for environment or social development projects.
Since partnering with Republic Cement in 2014, the Malvar LGU has been able to divert over 335 truckloads of baled plastic waste away from landfills and waterways.
The success of this partnership highlights the critical role of barangays in ensuring proper segregation of waste at source.
Beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program also provided a significant contribution to proper waste segregation and collection, through its community service component.
Strong LGU support coupled with consistent information, education, and communication campaigns helped ensure successful implementation at the grassroots level.
The LGU also further supported this initiative by hosting contests among participants to raise awareness and encourage residents to participate in proper waste segregation.
Image credits: Malvar LGU