DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Plastic bins overflow, trash sacks line the streets, and improvised storage areas continue to fill as residents wait for collection trucks that have yet to arrive.
In Barangay 76-A Bucana, 47-year-old resident “Peanut” said the prolonged delay has laid bare the city’s increasingly unreliable waste collection system.
“The garbage stops here for now — it stays in our yard. We make sure our pet dogs and cats do not rummage through and scatter the trash,” Peanut said, adding that some households had already placed trash outside their houses before learning of the suspension of the disposal schedules.
The disruption followed the May 20 mass-wasting incident at the Davao City Sanitary Landfill in Barangay New Carmen, where a large section of garbage collapsed after heavy rains, killing one person, injuring two others, and leaving two missing. The incident prompted the temporary suspension of landfill operations beginning May 22.
Since the suspension, many residents have resorted to storing garbage within their own properties while awaiting updates from local authorities.
The disruption has also made waste segregation harder to sustain, especially in households with limited space.
“Segregation can’t really be followed anymore because everything goes into one sack now,” Peanut said.
Before the suspension, garbage collection in Peanut’s area had generally followed a consistent routine. But even then, signs of a broken system were already visible.
“There were already irregularities — delayed collection due to a lack of trucks,” Peanut said.
In Priscilla Estates Phase 1, Barangay Cabantian, “Maribel,” 21, first noticed the disruption when collection trucks failed to arrive on their usual Friday schedule.
“There was already a notice from the barangay last Monday stating that garbage collection would be temporarily stopped. It has been seven days since our garbage was last collected,” she said.
Residents in their subdivision were informed through homeowners’ group chats, allowing some households to coordinate before waste began piling up. A large communal trash bin was also provided as a temporary measure.
But uncertainty remains over how long existing storage can accommodate accumulating waste.
“Near Emily Homes, there are areas where garbage has piled up along the streets. The trash is not scattered, but it has accumulated in piles,” Maribel said.
In her own household, she said they are reorganizing how they store waste while waiting for clearer announcements from the city government.
“We are trying to segregate it properly so it will fit within the available space,” she said.
City response
Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) earlier suspended waste disposal operations to allow stabilization measures and implementation of recommendations under Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act.
In response, Davao’s local government filed a motion for reconsideration on May 26, citing geotechnical assessments and recommended corrective measures.
“The city will utilize its new landfill facility adjacent to the existing site in Barangay New Carmen,” said Harvey Lanticse, head of the City Information Office.
The City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) said garbage collection would continue “as scheduled” while urging residents to segregate waste to reduce the volume reaching the landfill.
Long-standing problems
But the landfill collapse did not create Davao’s waste management problem — it exposed one that already existed.
Even before the New Carmen incident, environmental groups, waste advocates, and city reports had already flagged long-standing issues: insufficient landfill capacity, weak segregation practices, limited barangay facilities, and the city’s growing dependence on a single disposal site.
The New Carmen landfill had already exceeded capacity in recent years. Davao City generates around 750 tons of garbage daily driven by a rapidly growing population and rising consumption. Food waste accounts for nearly 40 percent of the city’s waste stream, with vegetable and fruit residues at 23.79 percent and food and kitchen waste at 18.48 percent, according to CENRO data. Disposable products — diapers, plastic bags, sachets, PET bottles, and food packaging — make up a significant additional share.
Environmental advocates argue the growing waste volume is not solely a landfill issue but is rooted in weak enforcement of segregation policies and limited waste reduction efforts at the household and barangay levels.
Under RA 9003, barangays are required to implement waste segregation systems and establish Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) to process recyclable and biodegradable waste before residual waste reaches landfills. Compliance, however, remains uneven. Of Davao City’s 182 barangays, only 53 have established MRFs — and many of those reportedly operate mainly for compliance purposes rather than as fully functioning processing centers.
Environmental group Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) has called for stronger enforcement of segregation policies and a “circular economy” approach that focuses on reducing waste generation, extending the lifespan of materials through reuse and recycling, and strengthening community-based systems.
“It should start with segregating and recycling what can still be used,” said IDIS program coordinator Lemuel Manalo. The organization has also pushed for stricter “no segregation, no collection” policies to encourage household accountability.
City officials, meanwhile, are pursuing large-scale infrastructure projects to address the garbage problem. A new 9-hectare landfill adjacent to the current New Carmen site is under construction at a cost of around P559 million.
The city is also pursuing a proposed P5-billion waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in Biao Escuela, Tugbok District, supported by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The facility aims to reduce landfill dependence by converting residual waste into energy.
However, the project has faced delays in securing national government requirements and has faced criticism from environmental groups concerned about the health and environmental impacts of incineration-related technologies. (davaotoday.com)
