Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama was urged by EcoWaste Coalition, a Philippine Environmental advocacy group, not to sign a joint venture (JVA) with New Sky Energy Inc., (NSEI), for a waste-to energy (WTE) facility.
We urge Mayor [Mike]Rama to reconsider this proposal for an incinerator. The city should not rush to implement this quick fix solution that will end up being a burden on the city and threaten the people’s health, welfare and sources of income, EcoWaste Coalition spokesperson Lievj Alimangohan stated in a statement to media.
The JVA allows the city to allow the energy company to build and operate the WTE facility over 40 years before it is handed to the city.
The city will also receive an additional 3% share in gross power sales revenues and 5% in sales of all other side products.
The resolution authorizing the mayor of signing the JVA was approved in a council session Wednesday. Nine people voted in favor, five against, and two abstentions. The mayor has not yet signed the JVA.
Rappler asked Cebu City Mayor Mike Rama if he would sign the JVA. Karla Henry Ammann, Karla’s spokesperson, said that Mayor Rama is confident that the city council followed protocol and has taken the appropriate steps to pass the JVA.
Allan Cirsolog (president of New Sky Energy Inc.) presented the proposal for the WTE facility in September 2019. It has been subject to several reviews by the city’s Joint Venture Selection Committee since then.
Currently, there is no location specific for the project.
Joel Garganera (Cebu City Councilor) pointed out Wednesday that the city would be able to provide the land.
Instead, the city will grant the company a year of land security at no cost to them.
Councilors in favor of the WTE facility, including Garganera, believe it is one of the possible solutions to the city’s perennial struggle to collect and manage the over 180,000 tons of waste the metropolitan city produces per year.
Garganera said that WTE is “the way to go,” adding that developed countries like the Netherlands and Denmark have WTE facilities. It is expected that the facility will produce enough electricity to power at least 16,000 households.
It will increase our environmental performance score. Garganera stated that the Philippines currently stands at 111 in terms of EPI score.
Alvin Dizon, Eugenio Gabuya Jr., Councilor Nestor Archival, and Eugenio Gabuya Jr., who were opposed to the project, questioned JVA’s lack of clarity and environmental consequences.
The agreement stipulates that the city would transport 800 tons of garbage per day to the WTE facility and pay a tipping fee to the company of P1,000 per ton for the first three years, P1,150 per year from the fourth to sixth year, and then P1,300 per year from the seventh to ninth year.
Rappler was told by Dizon that allowing the WTE operation would only increase the city’s trash generation and that it would undermine environmentally-sound approaches to managing waste. It would also produce toxic pollutants that could be harmful to the public’s health.
WTE facilities use trash to make steam, which is then used to generate electricity.
Dizon claimed that WTE pollution is more potent than carbon dioxide in studies and is therefore a danger to climate change.
Since several years, environmental advocates have raised similar proposals to build WTE in other parts the country.
Jorge Agustin O. Emmanuel of Silliman University was quoted in a BusinessWorld report in November 2021 saying WTE was just “incineration in disguise.”
WTE is waste incineration disguised. Emmanuel stated that it burns tons of municipal wastes to generate a tiny amount of net energy but emits huge amounts of toxic pollutants, greenhouse gases, and other pollutants.
Garganera told Rappler that NSEI’s WTE technology has undergone an environmental technology verification by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
He stated that the technology used would reduce garbage volume up to 91.48%, and that it works within the legal standards. Rappler.com