The sanitary landfill in Bayawan City, Negros Oriental now caters to at least 10 local government units (LGUs) and other private companies for residual waste disposal.

The sanitary landfill, dubbed as Bayawan City Waste Management and Ecology Center, was feted as a best practice in previous years and has become a tourist draw with LGUs from outside Negros Oriental coming over for a visit to study the facility, city tourism officer, Dona Maturan, said on Wednesday.

Starting in 2021, LGUs and private companies have begun dumping their residual garbage at the Bayawan sanitary landfill for a fee, Maturan said.

The clients are the LGUs of Basay, Sta. Catalina, Zamboanguita, Dauin, Bacong, Dumaguete, Sibulan, San Jose, Valencia, and Mabinay, while the private companies are the Energy Development Corp. and Ajinomoto, she said.

The tipping fee is PHP1,000 per ton of garbage, she added.

The sanitary landfill has one open cell to hold the garbage with three more cells that have yet to be opened. These will last for 30 years, the tourism officer said.

“We have the technology that is why most of the local government units as far as Luzon and Mindanao visit our place just to see our sanitary landfill,” Maturan said.

After the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) outlawed open pit dumpsites, LGUs in Negros Oriental scrambled to find, but to no avail, the proper site for the mandated sanitary landfill.

In Dumaguete City, the local government has established a materials recovery facility (MRF) in an outskirts barangay while other villages have their own for recyclable waste.

Bayawan City received the Best Solid Waste Disposal Facility Award from the Environment Management Bureau 7 (Central Visayas) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in 2022.

Maturan said aside from the sanitary landfill, Bayawan City also has another best practice that attracts tourists, referring to the local early warning system for floods, which they call mini-PAGASA. (PNA)