Solid waste management is an important aspect of society.

It is a system for
handling the garbage people dump in cities. As long as humans continue to live in settled
communities, solid waste will always be an issue (de Guzman, 2003). The increasing volume
of solid waste that is being generated is brought about by the introduction of new materials and
flactuating consumption pattern of the increasing rural population (urbanization) (Devkota and
Watanabe, 2005).

Moreover, houses that have the spaces to bury their garbage are buried instead on
the streets. Because of this, cities started to collect garbage for disposal. In fact many cities
in the country have adopted this system. Prior to RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste
Management Act of 2000, Local Government Units were primarily responsible for its
implementation and enforcement. Barangays and cities each have different responsibilities.
The barangays are responsible for the segregation and collection of biodegradable,
compostable and reusable solid wastes. On the other hand, the city or municipality is
responsible for the collection of nonrecyclable materials and special wastes (RA 9003).

The first priority of the Ecological Solid Waste Management (ESWM) is volume
reduction at source. This could be done through segregation, reusing, recycling and
composting at the point of origin, meaning at the grassroots and our homes. It is important
to reuse, reduce and recycle waste because there are garbages that will take a very long
time to decompose.

The implementation of RA 9003 in Tagum City

It is the responsibility of city governments to assume primary responsibility for solid

waste management and develop and implement aggressive and effective waste reduction
and source separation strategies. It is therefore interesting to consider how each city
practice RA 9003 or the Solid Waste Management Act.

Tagum Citys solid waste management plan was entitled City Ordinance No.229, S-
2006- An ordinance revising the Municipal Ordinance No. 2, S-1997,An ordinance
establishing the comprehensive Solid Waste Management of the Municipality of Tagum. It
was enacted and passed on December 18, 2006. The City Solid Waste Management Plan
was created to ensure long-term solid waste management in all barangays.

In Tagum City, residents must also segregate their solid waste. Then, the
segregated recyclable solid waste should be brought to the designated Material Recovery
Facility (MRF) for clustered or group of households. Section 5 states that the Barangay
Material Recover Facility shall serve as the facility to store, process solid wastes.
Composting Centers should be created so biodegradable wastes coming from government
facilities or public markets shall be processed into compost or fertilizer. Finally, Residuals of
solid waste after resource recovery shall be disposed of in the city disposal facility, by
sanitary landfilling or other in an ecologically sound method.

In 2003, garbage generation is approximately 389 cu/ day however collection

capability is pegged at 280 cum/day. Despite the gap in collection capacity, the City's
garbage collection service today is a big improvement from 10 years ago (Tiamson, 2013).