Garbage at the Shrine Hills in Davao City in 2018. Photo courtesy of Sustainable Davao Movement
Peñalver said that the problem with the proposed WTE facility, which the mayor is pushing, is that it would release toxins as it burns up wastes to produce power, threatening air quality, water, food and human health. The law, he said, requires the identification of non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging , but the National Solid Waste Management Commission, through Resolution No. 1428, released the list in 2021 that includes “only plastic coffee stirrers and soft drink straws,” which “is not enough to address the plastic problem in the country.”
Addressing the concerns of some environmental advocates, Duterte said the city would be employing the technology developed by the Japanese who, he said, are “very sensitive to environmental impacts.”