Waste Co-Processing

We read with great interest an article ran by Holcim Philippines, Inc. on The Philippine Daily Inquirer last Sunday. The article tackled the company's efforts in utilizing co-processing of waste in cement production in their plants in the Philippines.

About two years ago, while doing research on solid waste management, I read an article about a study being conducted by the Department of Science and Technology on the matter of using industrial waste as fuel for the kilns of the cement industry. The study is intended to serve as a guide for crafting policy on co-processing of wastes taking into consideration the strict provisions of the Clean Air Act. Our research was stopped as it was overtaken by events in the colorful world of provincial politics and I failed to monitor what eventually happened to the DOST initiative.

The announcement (through the PDI article) that four Holcim Philippines plants have already started co-processing is a delightful surprise. Co-processing not only cuts fossil fuel costs, it also provides an environmentally friendly alternative to waste disposal.

In more graphic terms, imagine a mountain of used car and truck tires. If no solution would be found on how to dispose of these tires, they would eventually be dumped onto landfills. (Of course, minus the few thousands burned during the insane New Year Celebrations we have hereabouts) One option is to incinerate these tires but this option is not available anymore in the era of the Clean Air Act. The solution was eventually found in co-processing.

What else can be used in co-processing? Liquid waste such as used oil, sludge, solvents and paint residues and solid waste such as contaminated rags, mould runners and packaging materials. All of these would have been dumped into our landfills if co-processing is not utilized.

This brings me back to my pet peeve. Can we use our unsegregated garbage in the co-processing scheme? The answer is an absolute no! Only specific wastes may be used in co-processing and since our garbage is practically not sorted, there is a big risk that severe pollutants may have been included in it and burning would only result in the release of these pollutants into the air.

Our thoughts on this?

Co-processing provides us a good alternative to waste disposal and it provides a solution to some of the problems that persist in waste management. Yes it relieves us of some of our worries but it is not the cure for all our troubles. Waste, as it is, is brought about by human insensitivity to the ways of nature. If we could only be more responsible for our actions, then we would not have had the problems in the first place.

That Gasoline Tanker Blast

I grew up in a rural community that is host to an an oil refinery. I have had my share of memories of accidental fires in the facility; of the two most vivid ones, one left a relative severely burned and disfigured and one involved an oil tanker that was burned while docked at the refinery's jetty at Batangas Bay.

It goes without saying that at an early age, I was already aware of the real danger posed by inappropriate handling of gasoline products. Come to think of it, our family home is less than a kilometer away from two giant LPG vessels. Do I know how to be wary of mishandling LPG!

I ended up working for some time for an American company that built a new refinery to replace the thirty year old relic. A few months before completion of the new plant, I witnessed a fireball that erupted from a flare caused by the build up of pressure due to a malfunctioning pump. I was in an airconditioned building some five hundred meters away from that flare but I still felt the extreme heat when the blast occurred.

Having been exposed to all these, I was first lured into studies concerning safety and later on began to look into the realm of the environment and the conservation of natural resources. Learning is a lifelong passion and so I continue to study up to this day.

Yesterday, past 10 pm, Manila time, a tanker carrying 14,000 liters of diesel fuel and 2,000 liters of gasoline exploded after crossing Nagtahan Bridge in Manila. One person was killed, a number injured and some 13 vehicles were burned.

This incident made me write this post. The Batangas refinery has a 110 thousand barrels per stream day capacity. The finished products are transported using gasoline lorries, LPG tankers or barges or pumped through the two pipelines laid out between Batangas and Manila. In moving these products, the trucks, lorries and tankers pass through residential areas of the City.

Now that I am thinking of it, I have suddenly realized that these products pass through a route that is barely two hundred meters away from my house!

It is high time that a review of the oil movement situation in Batangas is done. An accident has occurred in Manila and we should not wait for an accident to happen in Batangas. Let us act now and prevent similar incidents from happening.

Transport Wishes

A few days back, Puerto Princesa City Mayor Edward Hagedorn was seen on national TV testing a prototype of the "Tricycle ng Bayan." The tricycles run on an electric motor using a rechargeable battery. He plans to deploy at least 100 Trikebayans in his City in the next few months.

It caught my attention as the electric tricycle offers a solution to the persistent noise and air pollution that is caused by the multitudes of gas powered ones plying the streets of the Philippines. There are more than two million tricycles running in the towns and cities of our beloved country. All of these are gas powered and noisy. If the operators would be convinced to convert to electric powered tricycles, we could just imagine the reduction of emissions and decibel levels we would be encountering everyday.

Compare this initiative with the Israeli government's move to encourage its citizens to shift to electric cars. Government policy planners and project implementors are focusing their eyes into making this a viable undertaking. Time Magazine quoted Israel President Shimon Peres as saying that this is "an experimental lab, a pilot project, before it's applied to other, bigger industrialized nations." (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1705518,00.html).

What struck me in the plan is that the Israelis are going to build the necessary support infrastructure to ensure that the project will be a success. Battery charging stations are going to be constructed all over Israel so that the problem of running out on charge would be minimized.

Another item that caught my attention was the news bite that quoted the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies as having said that there is a glut of public utility vehicles in Metro Manila streets.

I think that this is a no brainer.Just take a trip on EDSA and one can easily see the half empty buses chugging along, clogging the roadways. A more efficient system of dispatching these vehicles should be done so that at the very least, the number of vehicles could be minimized.

If only a fairy godmother would appear and give me three wishes, these would be the wishes that I would make: I am wishing that the LRT/MRT link could be started and finished. I am wishing that a subway could be built in Metro Manila. I am wishing that the national railway system could be revived. If my wishes would be granted, maybe the Philippines may still make it.

Reactions to News Items

I watched the late news on Studio 23 tonight and saw two disturbing news items.

One, Boracay regulars are now complaining of the dirty water coming out of pipes that drain onto the sea. Officials of the Municipality of Malay claim that the water coming out of pipes came from a natural spring and is in fact not dirty. Visitors are claiming otherwise. Residents though are saying that there are times that their homes are being flooded and the water that goes inside the houses are murky smelly water.

Just a food for thought: is there already a sewage treatment facility in the island?

Two, hospital waste from a private institution in Bacoor, Cavite are not being collected by the garbagemen for fear that these are contaminated. What was shown on TV is the mound of trash that contains used syringes and dextrose bags, soiled bandages and other hospital trash. Mind you, this was a pile of unsegregated garbage with hospital wastes to boot!

Query: Various laws have obviously been violated in this instance, why are they not being enforced here?

There was a bright spot in the news though; in Norzagaray, Bulacan, a dumpsite (apparently a sanitary landfill) was featured with the manager of the facility being quoted as inviting the people to come and visit the place. He is claiming that they have followed all the requirements set forth in the Solid Waste Law and that they are observing the correct procedures in the disposal of human excesses.

Yes, a sanitary landfill is a vast improvement over the open dumpsite, but as I have earlier said, segregation of wastes is the key to solving the Problem.

The Batangas Bay Experience

Way back 1996, as a member then of the Provincial Board of Batangas, we authored an Ordinance creating the Batangas Bay Region Environmental Protection Council. We thought of creating that Council when we realized just how many Government agencies were somehow directly or indirectly involved in the enforcement of laws pertaining to the unique ecosystem of Batangas Bay.

Consider this: we had the Philippine National Police, the Philippine Coast Guard, the Philippine Navy, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Maritime Industry Authority, the then Export Processing Zone Authority now Philippine Economic Zone Authority, the Provincial Government, the City Government of Batangas, and the Municipal Governments of Bauan, San Pascual and Tingloy.

Honestly, our sole purpose then was to pass an Ordinance that would create a body that would somehow convince these government agencies to sit down together and talk about Batangas Bay. There is an ulterior motive though and that is by bringing them together, the sustainable development of Batangas Bay may be, even parenthetically, discussed. That would be an achievement.

Meet they did at least four times a year from then on. Eventually, the council became part of the programs of the UNDP and PEMSEA for Batangas Bay.

Fast forward to 2005 and Dr. Kent Carpenter and Victor Springer and their finding that Batangas Bay is the center of the center of Marine biodiversity with the richest concentration of marine life in the entire planet. It has long been known that the Philippines belongs to an ocean region that has the most marine life but it was only after Carpenter and Springer published their study that the significance of Batangas Bay to the world of marine biology became evident.

We never knew this in 1995 when we started the move to pass the Ordinance. Somehow, mother earth managed to have its way and the law that would help in protecting our beloved bay came to be.

Carbon Fiber Technology for use in Aquatic Environmental Protection

I was watching a TV feature on a Japanese professor who is developing an application for interwoven carbon fibers for aquatic environmental protection. I surfed the Internet afterwards and saw an abstract of the scientific investigation and was further intrigued by it.

One application of carbon fiber is for water purification of sewage in urban areas. The video was quite vivid and the result of the experiment was simply amazing. There was rapid and mass fixation of activated sludge on the carbon fibers. Futhermore, it appears that carbon has an effect on the growth of microorganisms and these microorganisms in turn end up devouring the sludge. Tests conducted after the carbon fiber products were placed in polluted water showed that the water became cleaner after a period of time.

One could just imagine what the effect would be if a series of carbon fiber nets were strategically placed at Pasig River in Manila! Our policy formulators should find a way to acquire the technology from the Japanese professor and apply the same to the polluted fresh water lakes in the Philippines.

If properly used, this technology could help stop the continuing degradation of the quality of our fresh water bodies. Human ingenuity to counteract human excesses.

Trash

I watched the early evening news today January 15,2008 and here are some items that I took note of:
In Naples, Italy. residents are complaining because of trash that remain uncollected for the last three weeks. The City dump has been closed and the government has brought in the Army to help. Some of the City's trash were loaded onto trucks and brought by ferry boat to Sicily. As can be expected, protesters angrily met the truckloads of rubbish. City magistrates are still to decide on whether incinerators should be allowed just so to solve the worsening problem.

In Meycauayan City, Bulacan, a few kilometers North of Manila, Philippines, the City dump was closed down due to incessant complaints from residents. According to the manager of the facility, the 3 hectare dumpsite suffered from little or no maintenance at all due limited funds. As a result of this, the trash remained untreated in the open pits and created a stench that affected the nearby village.

In Davao City, Philippines, at least two houses were crushed when a mountain of trash fell on them. The incident happened in the old City dump. No other details were provided.

Theses events were unrelated and they happened hundreds of kilometers away from one another, but a common thread runs through them. Trash! Unsegregated garbage dumped into landfills. Non-biodegradable materials and biodegradable items mixed and thrown into open pits.

Some problems are brought to light. One, absolute failure to undertake segregation. Two, the inefficiency of landfills. Three, the temptation to resort to quick fix solutions that may bring about greater problems like incineration. Four, lack of government funds for proper garbage disposal.

We need to make a collective effort to come up with solutions to these problems. Unless we do that, the incidents narrated above will be repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated ...

Let Us Start With Paper

I have had enough of the way of the waste. It is time to do things in a better way. Let us start with paper. If only people would learn to segregate paper from all the trash that they throw away, we would be able to reduce the amount that government needs to collect and dispose of by at least twenty percent daily.

Yes, we start with paper. Only paper. We tell this to kids at school, the Moms and Dads who are in their offices, the busy person on the way to somewhere. Let us start with paper. All we have to do at first is to just focus on waste made out of paper.

Don't throw the old newspapers, books, magazines and pamphlets out. Just segregate these and place them on a separate container. Day in day out, leave the paper alone.

Once a substantial amount is segregated and collected, these should be brought to a recycling facility and sold.

We have reduced our waste by twenty percent and earned some cash from the exercise.