Puerto Princesa is among the few pilot cities in the country under the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Clean Cities Blue Ocean (CCBO) flagship program.
CCBO is implementing the Save Our Seas 2.0 Act aimed to reduce the estimated 11 million tons of plastic that flow into the ocean each day. It aims to enhance circularity in rapidly urbanizing areas of developing countries including the Philippines. It identified five building blocks for reduced ocean plastic pollution such as policies to enable a circular economy, improved solid waste services and infrastructure, locally viable innovations and technologies, sustained behavior change and an inclusive and equitable system.
Last month, the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (City ENRO) of Puerto Princesa headed by Atty. Carlo B. Gomez facilitated the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing between City Mayor Lucilo R. Bayron and CCBO’s contractor TetraTech. It was learned that CCBO is present in only 6 cities in the country as of the moment, and the City is fortunate enough to become the program’s partner towards improved solid waste management.
Thus far, the CCBO in its projects in other countries, prior to their entry in the Philippines, has already secured more than 43,000 tons of plastic and other materials from leaking into the environment. They have also safely managed more than 300,000 tons of wastes and recyclables, therefore recovering and diverting nearly 90 tons of wastes from landfills.
They have also trained 900 individuals from different local governments, the informal waste sector, and local organizations to build local capacity for solid waste management planning and programs. They have also awarded $3.1 million in grants to local partners who offered solutions to improved waste management in their respective localities.
They have also built strong links and partnership with LGUs, private sector partners including Coca-Cola Foundation, Nestle Philippines, World Bank, Metro Manila Development Authority, and the Alliance to End Plastic Wastes to build sustainable and circular economies.
Most importantly, the CCBO has directly impacted more than 4.8 million individuals who have experienced improved air and water quality as a result of landfill remediation activities or have improved access to waste services as a result of new local businesses and organizations. Puerto Princesa is among the very first in the country to establish its sanitary landfill, way back many years ago.
It was learned from the Municipality of Palo, in the Province of Leyte, that sometime in 2011, it requested resource speakers from the City Government of Puerto Princesa to teach them about solid waste management, zero waste approaches, bokashi composting, among other training. Today, Palo has acknowledged Puerto Princesa City for these since they started making concrete blocks made of residual wastes and plastics since then, which they utilize to pave their sidewalks.
The inclusion among the very few LGUs in the country piloted for CCBO’s projects is a bright prospect for our City’s journey to achieve substantial compliance to the provisions set forth by the Republic Act 9003 also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. It is also worthy to note that last year, a local-based cooperative named Project Zacchaeus Cooperative (PZC) received funding from CCBO for its solid waste management initiatives such as household-level wastes segregation and improving the conditions of our informal waste pickers in the city. Such bright prospects and opportunities for a cleaner city await Puerto Princesa, its barangays, and stakeholders.