Lagon and Vista Group Solid & Liquid Waste Management Technology Demonstration

Last Nov. 24, 2009, I attended a demonstration of the Solid and Liquid Waste Management Technology "invented" by the Lagon and Vista Group. A formal launching was held at the executive lounge of the DOST and was attended by Dr. Nuna Almanzor, Director of DOST-ITDI, Comm. Leonarda N. Camacho, Commissioner of UNESCO, Mr. Norberto Lagon, President of the Lagon and Vista Group, Dr. Christopher Silverio, Chief Science Research Specialist of DOST-ITDI, Eng. Romeo Cabacang, Cheif - Microbiology and Genetics Division of DOST-ITDI and representatives from LGUs, NGOs, etc.


Above is Comm. Leonarda Camacho of UNESCO urging the participants to segregate and recycle. She, herself, was, if I'm not mistaken, one of those who founded LINIS GANDA - a cooperative of junkshops in Metro Manila. She even did a little plug and invited everyone to contact her if they wanted to sell recyclables.

If you think junkshop business is for the poor and desperate, you may be in for a surprise. Some of these junkshops earn in the millions per month according to her. And how would they not? They buy your scrap probably for just a tenth of how much they could sell it. You just have to bear the smell and the filth.

When she finished her speech, she walked by my direction and actually asked me in a kind of accusing tone, pointing finger at my face - "O kayo nagsesegregate ba kayo?". Startled, I just nodded my head in a quick knee-jerk like reaction. Then I kinda regretted not replying back. Of course, I do it at home. I even practice vermicomposting. How dare she.



Oh, I almost forgot. A funny incident happened when Comm. Camacho kept on referring to Dr. Nuna Almanzor as the DOST Secretary Hon. Estrella Alabastro. She kept on praising the good secretary of her integrity and competence as cabinet member. Even when they are sitted beside each other the good commissioner kept on refering to her as the DOST Secretary even when Dr. Almanzor herself told her she's mistaking her for Nina (Hon. Estrella Alabastro's nickname) and that she's pleased but quite embarrassed of her on-the-spot promotion!

Lunch
*** Yeah a separate paragraph for lunch, to please our (soon) advertisers :) ***

Buffet lunch was provided by Ibarra's Catering. I knew Ibarra's was familiar. I remember calling them up when we're scouting for caterers for one of our events. They have a branches in Timog Avenue, Quezon Avenue and Ermita Manila. Too bad I failed to get pictures of the food. Will try to be more vigilant about getting food pictures on later seminars I will attend.

Ribbon Cutting

Anyway after lunch, off we went to the Environment Division Building of the DOST-ITDI. There we saw them preparing for the ribbon cutting.



That's Dr. Almanzor (Not Alabastro) on Comm. Camacho's right. On her left is the "inventor" Mr. Lagon. Eng. Cabacang, 1st from left, and Dr. Silverio, 2nd from left.

The System



The system is conveyor-linked and facilitates manual and automated sorting of waste. It also processes biodegradable wastes thru a biodigester and treats the wastewater for continued water reuse within the system.





Garbage is fed into a hopper. It is carried by the first conveyor belt where paper components are picked-out manually by the eco-aides. The garbage then enters a washing component to remove debris and mitigate foul odor. Water is continuously supplied from its own closed-loop waste water treatment facility which uses a three-layer filtration system composed of gravel, pebbles and activated carbon.



After washing, the garbage is then carried by a second conveyor belt where plastics, and other recyclable materials are manually sorted from the residual and biodegradable wastes. By design, a strong magnet is supposed to be installed at this stage to automatically separate metal components. In the demonstration unit, however, said magnet was missing. The separated recyclable and biodegradable wastes are then stored at separate bins.





The collected biodegradable wastes are then fed into a biodigester developed by the DOST-ITDI. A bare room can be found beside the facility which demonstrates the uses of the generated biogas – stove top cooking and running electrical appliances. Electricity is produced from a 13 horsepower biogas and LPG converted generator.











Although the technology boasts of operations “without the use of dumping areas”, it is clear that since the system lacks any provision for recycling residual wastes, final disposal in a landfill would still be required.





The Bottom Line

The technology clearly is not an innovation. Similar facilities have been established in other LGUs in previous years. One example that quickly comes to mind is the one located in Manggahan, Pasig. Unfortunately the said facility was shut down due to odor problems and manageability issues.

Although the whole system is still noteworthy in the sense that it attempted to pursue an integrated approach to waste management, it tends to complicate (in a very costly way) the simple task of waste segregation which in fact should be carried out in the household level. One would be better off leaving the recovery of recyclables in the household level and managing only biodegradable wastes by having the biodigester, thus saving Php 600,000 in conveyer belt apparatus.

Another serious concern is the rate at which the process is completed. In the demonstration, it already took the eco-aides almost 30 minutes, stopping the conveyer belt in several occasions, just to completely sort out a drum of garbage, which even seemed a bit too “sanitized” in form – visibly composed only of vegetable scraps and plastics. I think the use of conveyors would be optimized and be rendered cost-efficient only in large scale applications where you transport the garbage in longer distances, allowing more laborers to sort the waste at a faster rate, thereby increasing the system's overall processing capacity.