LAOAC, Pangasinan -- The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional office is now evaluating a waste-to-energy project proposed for Laoac town by Rublu Group of Companies, a consortium of Filipino, Indian, South Korean and Chinese companies.
Laoac Mayor Silverio Alarcio Jr., president of the Pangasinan Mayors' League (PML), on Monday said the project would turn wastes into electric energy that could be used to energize homes as well as factories.
If finally developed, Laoac would be the first town in Pangasinan to make use of this technology, which Alarcio said was different from the “waste to worth” project set to be built in Dagupan that would process garbage into diesel fuel.
He said that proposed project in Laoac was an incineration-type project in which the wastes that would be collected from homes, would be burned to heat a boiler up to a maximum of 2,000 degrees centigrade.
The process will produce steam that will turn turbines which will in turn produce electric energy, the mayor added. After the burning process, the ashes can be used as landfill for low-lying areas.
Officials of Rublu came to Laoac and offered the technology being used in advanced countries like South Korea, Singapore and Japan to get rid of their wastes.
The company already brought Alarcio and other town officials to South Korea for an ocular inspection of waste to energy projects and were briefed on the operational systems.
When informed that the project may suffer rough sailing in the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which frowns on incineration, the mayor asked: "Why are advanced countries still using this technology if it really is destructive to the environment?”
"If South Korea, Singapore and Japan are now using this technology, why can't we use the same in our country in order to get rid of our own wastes where we have run out of place to safely dispose our wastes?" he added.
Alarcio believes that coal plants, which the country now has several of, are more hazardous than the incineration-type project.
"Incineration is banned in the Clean Air Act but if you incinerate for the purpose of creating a useful energy such as electricity, this may be allowed, he said, adding that burning wastes at 2,000 degrees centigrade would already get rid of many toxic wastes.
Alarcio said the technology could solve the mounting garbage problem of the country and at this stage, "we don't seem to know what we will do with our wastes". (PNA)
