Automated garbage collector technology on trial in city

The city government is trying out the automated garbage collector (AGC) technology designed to ease up waste collection system in the city.
Mayor Benjamin Magalong and City General Services Officer Eugene Buyucan said five units of AGC or self-loading garbage bins are presently deployed along Legarda Road on a trial basis for a 30-day period that started Feb. 25 in time for the Panagbenga main events.
The self-loading garbage bins which are designed to lessen human intervention in transferring garbage from the bins to the trucks were lent by a private company at no cost to the city government.
Properly segregated solid wastes should be dumped inside the AGC receptacle which will be automatically lifted and transferred to the garbage trucks once full.
The system minimizes the need for garbage volunteers to pick solid waste from collection points to be loaded into garbage trucks, lessening human intervention.
The city officials said if the experiment turns out well, the AGC system could be adopted in the city and will be stationed at identified garbage collection points in the barangays thereby minimizing the risk of scattered garbage by stray animals.
The introduction of AGC is part of the initial plan of the city government to privatize the management of solid waste in a bid to reduce the cost of operations in transferring non-biodegradable waste to a private sanitary landfill outside Baguio.
Earlier, the City General Services Office conducted a waste assessment and characterization study revealed that the city government will be able to save P45 million with the proposed privatization on collection and hauling of the garbage from source to the landfill.
Part of the proposed privatization of solid waste operations is the plan to amend the city’s garbage ordinance to increase the rate of garbage fees per tonnage of waste produced.
The mayor said increasing the amount of garbage fee per volume of waste produced in households and establishments is the only way to discipline the public in reducing their waste production. – Jessa Mardy P. Samidan