The Law

Republic Act (RA) 9003

THE ECOLOGICAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Republic Act No. 9003 into law on January 2001. It is the first bill enacted immediately after EDSA 2. Short titled Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, it is by far the most comprehensive piece of legislation to address the country’s garbage problem.

Solid waste management whose importance is directly related to public health, resource management and utilization, and maintaining a clean environment, is necessary in ensuring human development. Solid waste management benefits the population in many ways.

What are our wastes?

The law specifically declares in Sec. 2 that it is the policy of the state to adopt a systematic, comprehensive and ecological solid waste management system. To understand the essence of this system, it would be necessary to identify: 1) solid wastes and how the law classifies these, and 2) the limitations of the law. The following are the types of wastes identified by RA 9003:

1. Solid Wastes – all discarded household, commercial wastes, non-hazardous institutional and industrial wastes, street sweepings, construction debris, agricultural wastes, and other non-hazardous/non-toxic solid wastes.

2. Special Wastes – these are household hazardous wastes such as paints, thinners, household batteries, lead-acid batteries, spray canisters, and the like. These include wastes from residential and commercial sources that comprise of bulky wastes, consumer electronics, white goods, yard wastes that are collected separately, oil, and tires. These wastes are usually handled separately from other residential and commercial wastes.

3. Hazardous Wastes – these are solid, liquid, contained gaseous or semisolid wastes which may cause or contribute to the increase in mortality, or in serious or incapacitating reversible illness, or acute/chronic effect on the health of people and other organisms.

4. Infectious Wastes – mostly generated by hospitals.

5. Wastes resulting from mining activities including contaminated soil and debris.

With these classifications, RA 9003 is seen to be comprehensive enough in taking action on solid wastes and to some extent special wastes as outlined in the preceding list. The law however, does not provide exact treatment and absolute management of hazardous waste, infectious wastes or wastes resulting from mining activities.

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OF RA 9003

The paradigm of RA 9003 is “waste is resource that can be recovered”, emphasizing recycling, re-use and composting as methods to minimize and eventually manage the waste problem.
The flow indicates that solid waste management starts at the point where people learn how to conserve the resources available, thus promoting sustainable development. (Brundtland, 1987)

Awareness on how to conserve resources, as first step, is expected to reduce the volume of waste generated whether at the industrial level or household and commercial levels. This first step will require extensive education to change the values of the people.

Information and education of the people as an instantaneous reply. According to RA 9003, this task is delegated to civil society and NGO’s. However, for a population of 76 Million Filipinos, this is a huge task. The initial step is to educate the implementers of the law- the LGUs. In addition to this, solid waste management in the curricula of schools would enhance awareness and promote the right attitudes of the youth.