Owners of big establishments like shopping malls, hotels, and restaurants here are now required to provide their own large garbage bins that would effect the segregation of wastes.

The city council has approved on final reading Ordinance 52 s. 2008 authored by vice mayor Daniel Fariñas.

The measure was meant to compliment the city’s waste segregation policy since these establishments are also considered as major waste generators.

“It has been observed that although there are business establishments that are now complying with the solid waste segregation process, some have their solid wastes accumulated at their vicinities while awaiting the garbage trucks to pick them up. This kind of situation is not only an eyesore but there arises a tendency that these segregated garbage may be scattered by stray animals,” the ordinance noted.

“If there were big garbage bins sufficient to accommodate the accumulated garbage of each of these establishments, this kind of situation can be prevented, including the infestation by insects such as flies, cockroaches, and other vermins aside from the diseases that may arise from such,” it added.

As per the ordinance, “Proprietors, owners, and/or managers of large business establishments such as, but not limited to, hotels, restaurants, malls and the like, are hereby mandated to provide big garbage bins sufficient to accommodate the volume of their segregated garbage collections.

Large business establishments would refer to “businesses not considered micro, small and medium enterprise based on capitalization.”

However, although a business establishment falls under such brackets according to capitalization, it may still be considered ‘large’ if the volume of their garbage would approximate the equivalent volume of segregated garbage by other businesses considered large as determined by the Solid Waste Management Office and/or the City Environment and Parks Management Office.

These establishments may include schools, manufacturing plants, and all other establishments with large volumes of segregated garbage.

‘Big’ garbage bins, meanwhile, would refer to containers that are sizeable or “must bear dimensions sufficient enough to accommodate the volume of segregated garbage and enough to hold such for the period before their next collection.”