In order to preserve the national heritage, the Philippine government implemented a combined act of proper education and law enforcement to deal with the depressing issue of country`s devastated natural resource.

 Solid waste is an environmental problem that has reached critical proportions that seek immediate attention from government at all levels. With a growing population and a rapidly increasing consumption coupled with increasing urbanization, three key trends characterize solid waste management issues in the Philippines – increase in sheer volume of waste generated; change in the quality or make-up of waste generated; and the waste disposal method. These trends have been evident as solid waste or ?basura? has been one of the most visible environmental priority, particularly in cities and urbanizing centers, over the past thirty years. Efforts have been taken to address the issue with promulgation of laws, local ordinances and designing specific programs for solid waste management. However, the impact of these efforts was mixed. In the late 1990?s it was acknowledged that efforts taken were not sufficient to respond to the growing waste problem. This has led to the enactment of Republic Act (RA) 9003, The Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which is deemed to be a broad based and comprehensive approach for solid waste management. The Act essentially covered the social, economic, technological, political and administrative dimensions of solid waste management. The social dimension of solid waste management involved the minimization of waste generation from the source; the economic dimension covered waste recycling; and the technology dimension discussed the effective and acceptable ways of waste disposal. Cutting across these three dimensions are political and administrative dimensions of waste minimization, recycling and disposal.

RA 9003 is considered by many as one of the landmark legislations in the environment sector. It is consolidated a number of past laws and issuances pertaining to waste management. None of the past laws however, viewed solid waste from a perspective as promoted in RA 9003. Essentially, the Act promotes a paradigm that emphasizes waste as a resource that can be recovered, which is one of the key tenets of sustainable development. This philosophy is to be achieved by the following principles of reduction, reuse, recycling, and recovery as means for minimizing and eventually managing the solid waste problem. A critical aspect of the legislation is in the definition of the roles of the primary actors responsible for the Act?s implementation. At the crux of defining the roles of the actors is the continuing emphasis that effective solid waste management begins at the household level where people should learn how to conserve resources. Consciousness on resource conservation should impel people to reduce the volume of waste generated coming from all sources i.e. industrial, commercial and respective household level.

The World Bank estimates that the country generate between 0.3 and 0.7 kilograms of garbage daily, depending on the socio-economic level and degree of urbanization. As a general trend, provinces that have greater urban population and larger economic activities generate greater volume of solid waste. In 2000, estimates show that the country generated 19,700 tons of garbage daily. The National Capital Region (NCR) accounts for twenty five percent of the total solid waste generated followed by the Southern Tagalog Region (Region IV), Central Luzon (Region III) and Central Visayas (Region VII) which accounted for twenty percent (20%), fourteen percent (14%) and eight percent (8%) respectively.

The Philippine solid waste composition is generally characterized as highly organic (biodegradable) and recyclable. Based on the JICA Study (1999) yard, wood and kitchen wastes account for fifty percent (50%) of the total waste composition generated by an average household in the country.

It should be noted that with the passing of the Act recycling efforts, particularly in Metro Manila as well as other urban areas, are on the rise. World Bank cited that in 1997, only 6% of solid waste was recycled in Metro Manila. By 2002, recycling has increased to twenty-five percent (25%) recovered by Linis Ganda network at a cost of P 230 Million. (Final Report MMSWMP TA 3848-PHI) MMDA has also made operational municipal recycling facilities (MRFs) which handles 200 tons of waste daily. It is anticipated that private sector involvement in recycling will increase in the coming years. As reported by the Metro Manila Federation of Environment Multi-Purpose Cooperative in 2001, trade in recyclable materials increased in volume by thirty nine percent (39%) and value by forty seven percent (47%) in 2000 compared to 1998.

The responsibility of collecting municipal solid wastes rests primarily with the LGUs. Estimated countrywide collection efficiency is placed at forty percent (40%) with major cities able to collect as much seventy percent (70%). The remaining balance are either unserved or under-served, which may be common in poorer areas of cities or municipalities and in rural barangays. Most of the uncollected wastes, particularly in the slum areas end up in the waterways and creeks which causes another critical problem during the rainy and monsoon season – that is flooding. Municipal solid wastes are collected either by administration or contracted out to private contractors. These are cases however, wherein residents are the ones making the collections.

Section 37 of the Act explicitly mandated the immediate closure of open dumpsites and ordered the shift to controlled dumpsites. These areas are to be operational within a prescribed duration of five (5) years which will serve as a transitional period and should be closed by the end of the said period. At the current rate of implementation full compliance of this provision may be difficult to achieve. A host of factors such as insufficient budgetary resources, absence of an ecological solid waste management plan, difficulties in finding suitable landfill sites and the continued predominance of the NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) syndrome in potential landfill sites are real obstacles in complying with the law. In the light of these factors, the continued operation of open dumpsites and controlled dumpsites are imminent.

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