Environmental Technologies Industries
 |
Environmental Technologies Industries
 |
| Philippines Export Market Plan |
VI. Solid and Hazardous Waste Management
|
 |
|
|
Solid waste management has received greater attention from both the national and local governments in recent years. The Presidential Task Force on Solid Waste Management has produced guidelines for the evaluation of build-operate-transfer (BOT) projects in the waste treatment sector, as well as guidance to help local government units (LGUs) develop municipal ordinances on solid waste management, among other things. Good opportunities exist for U.S. waste management companies and equipment vendors to participate in LGU waste collection and disposal infrastructure development projects. A number of U.S. companies are already participating. Opportunities in the hazardous waste treatment, storage, and disposal market are more limited, however. Growth in this market segment awaits enforcement of the newly drafted toxic substances and hazardous wastes management regulations. Prospects are a little better in the medical waste treatment market, as the Department of Health recently passed a regulation requiring all hospitals and medical facilities to install incinerators as a condition for the renewal of their annual operation licenses.
Solid Waste
The Philippine Presidential Task Force on Waste Management (PTFWM) estimated the amounts and sources of waste generated in Metro Manila in 1996. Table 5 contains this information.
Table 5: Community Waste Generation in Metro Manila -1996
| Source | Total (tons/day) | Per Capita (kg/day) | Percent of Total |
| Residential | 2,848 | 0.31 | 49 |
| Market | 753 | 0.08 | 13 |
| Commercial | 321 | 0.04 | 5 |
| Industrial | 338 | 0.04 | 6 |
| Construction | 64 | 0.01 | 1 |
| Street waste | 1,073 | 0.12 | 18 |
| Institutional | 304 | 0.03 | 5 |
| Other | 135 | 0.01 | 3 |
| Total | 5,836 | 0.64 | 100 |
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, Industry Sector Analysis: Philippine Solid Waste Management Equipment.
The population of Metro Manila is currently 9.12 million; it is expected to reach 13 million by the year 2014. By the same year, its solid waste generation will reach 0.7 kilograms per capita per day or 11,705 tons per day. As waste production rates rise with economic growth, the problem of sanitary management of solid waste in the Philippines will be compounded.
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) estimates place the current collection efficiency rate of municipal solid waste in Metro Manila at 85 percent or 4,961 tons per day. The remaining 15 percent or 875 tons of uncollected waste are dumped into the bays, river banks, vacant lots, storm drains, and/or burned. The daily volume of municipal solid waste dumped at different disposal sites is 75 percent of the volume of collected waste or 4,377 tons per day. The remaining 25 percent or 1,459 tons per day of collected waste constitutes what collectors dumped illegally elsewhere in the city or recyclable materials segregated and what scavengers salvaged for sale. There are seven disposal sites in and around the Metro Manila area. The total daily volume accepted by these is 4,258 tons (1995).
The quality of solid waste services is largely dictated by the level of prosperity. The average major city inhabitant in the Philippines can presently afford to pay approximately $4 annually for waste management. In contrast, high-income cities, such as London, spend $45 per inhabitant for municipal waste services. These numbers illustrate the shortage of resources for solid waste management in the Philippines.
In an effort to improve solid waste management in Metro Manila, the Philippine Government and the National Capital Region launched a special five-year program that covers 1993-98. As part of this program, Metro Manila spent $9.6 million in 1996 for solid waste management equipment. The total value of the program is $53.8 million. This amount does not include projects that are in the planning stage and foreign donor support worth about $55 million. Equipment imports were estimated at $9.1 million in 1996 and projected at $11.0 million in 1997, growing at a rate of about 60-70 percent over the next few years. This program provides good opportunities for contractors and suppliers of solid waste management technologies and products.
The program includes:
* Procurement of 15-20 cubic meter communal containers with built-in compaction capability;
* Procurement of 100 units of 15 cubic meter compactor trucks to augment the existing number of collection vehicles used;
* Construction of five strategically located transfer stations and two sanitary landfills outside Metro Manila; and
* Closure of all existing open dump sites in Metro Manila, especially the infamous Smokey Mountain in Tondo.
The Presidential Task Force on Waste Management has financed a number of projects outside Metro Manila, including the development and operation of pilot sanitary landfills in San Mateo, Rizal and Carmona, Cavite, and the procurement of collection and transfer vehicles. The Task Force also administers the allocation of solid waste management equipment provided under a program funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. As part of its Grant-in-Aid Program, the Japanese Government has been funding the supply of compactor trucks and some other solid waste management equipment to the Philippines since 1989. So far, the Japanese Government has delivered 491 collection vehicles and 23 units of waste/earthmoving equipment for landfill/dumpsites to the 75 beneficiary cities and towns. Large Philippine cities like Metro Cebu, Davao, Iligan, Cagayan de Oro, and General Santos are also starting solid waste management programs.
The Integrated National Solid Waste Management System Framework approved by President Ramos in 1993 identifies the following major projects for 1996-98:
* Development of the San Mateo Sanitary Landfill;
* Development of the Manggahan Transfer Station to serve the San Mateo Sanitary Landfill;
* Construction of an incineration plant for the closed Smokey Mountain (1,300 tons per day) and Payatas (2,000 tons per day) dump sites;
* Development and operation of the government-owned 65-hectare Carmona Sanitary Landfill under a BOT arrangement; and
* Development and operation of Phases I and II of the R-10 Sea Reclamation under BOT.
The San Mateo and Carmona landfills have a combined estimated value of $318 million. The U.S. company Ogden joined First Philippines International in submitting a bid for the Carmona project. Another major solid waste management project worth $96 million is the Laguna Solid Waste Conversion Facility that is currently being handled by Alliance Bioremediation & Composting Corporation (ABCC of California) and Enviro-Chem Philippines. Phoenix Pacific Resource Power and U.S.-based Balboa Pacific Corporation (Bal Pac) signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the province of Bulacan to install a Bal Pac solid waste management system, which includes a complete waste-to-energy facility.
For the next three years, the best sales prospects in solid waste management are collection vehicles, and transfer and hauling equipment. There are also opportunities in the development and improvement of transfer stations, composting plants, and gas recovery systems; and the development and upgrading of current sanitary landfill sites.
Industrial Hazardous Waste
The recent regulatory developments in hazardous waste management are the main driver in the Philippine hazardous waste market. Efforts are under way to implement the provisions of RA 6969 and its implementing regulations: the Department of Environment and Natural Resources' (DENR's) Administrative Order 29, Title II (Toxic Chemical Substances) and Title III (Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes). With regards to toxic substances management, DENR's Environmental Management Board (EMB) developed a priority chemicals list to regulate 28 substances found to pose serious risk to human health and the environment (see table 6). EMB is currently preparing registration requirements for new chemical substances prior to their manufacture or import into the country. In addition, it will issue chemical control orders (CCOs) on five priority hazardous substances: all ozone-depleting substances (CCO already in effect), cyanide and its compounds (partial CCO in effect), polychloro-biphenyls, asbestos, and mercury and its compounds. The CCOs will specify a time frame for reducing and eventually phasing out use of these chemicals in the Philippines. Additionally, they will specify handling and management practices (including reporting and recordkeeping requirements) for wastes and contaminated products generated as a result of using chemicals subject to CCO.
Table 6: The Philippine Priority Chemicals List
1. 1,1,1 Trichloroethane
2. 1,2 Diphenylhydrazine
3. Arsenic and its compounds
4. Asbestos
5. Benzene
6. Beryllium
7. Cadmium and its compounds
8. Carbon tetrachloride
9. Chlorofluorocarbons
10. Chlorinated ethers
11. Chloroform
12. Chromium and its compounds
13. Cyanide and its compounds
14. Ethylene oxide
15. Ethylene dibromide
16. Halons
17. Hexachlorobenzene
18. Hexachloroethane
19. Lead and its compounds
20. Mercury and its compounds
21. Mirex
22. Pentachlorophenol
23. Phosgene
24. Polybrominated biphenyls
25. Polychlorobiphenyls
26. Selenium
27. Tributyltin
28. Vinyl chloride
Source: Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Environmental Management Board.
RA 6969 encourages the introduction of cleaner production techniques in order to reduce the volume of hazardous waste generated by industries. Several projects, including the Industrial Environmental Management Project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, are developing at-source waste reduction options for Philippine companies.
Waste recovery technologies constitute another market opportunity in this sector. Several local companies are already active in this market. Bensan Industries, for example, is involved in the recycling of used oil, and Philippine Recyclers, Inc., is recovering lead from used car batteries. The Metro Manila Toxic and Hazardous Waste Management Project, sponsored by the European Community and implemented by the British firm Entec, has indicated that hazardous waste recovery opportunities also exist in recycling photo processing wastes and some inert wastes.
There is an urgent need for hazardous waste treatment facilities in the Philippines, especially in view of the expected industrial growth over the next few years. Entec estimates that the volume of hazardous wastes in Metro Manila alone will rise from 232,306 tons per year in 1995 to 659,012 tons per year in 2010 (an increase of 184 percent). There is currently only one hazardous waste incinerator in the Philippines, which is used by Bayer Philippines to treat its own waste.
The initial costs of a central treatment facility that would process up to 90 percent of all hazardous wastes produced in Metro Manila would range from 900 million to 1.3 billion pesos ($52 million). Once the provisions of DAO 29, Title III are effectively enforced, market opportunities will exist in both the construction and operation of such facilities throughout the country.
Medical Waste
The Philippine medical waste management market has been growing rapidly over the last few years, surging from $1.6 million in 1995 to $11.5 million in 1997. Between 1997 and 1999, the market is expected to grow at a rate of 25 percent per year, as state-owned and private hospitals strive to comply with new medical waste management regulations issued by DENR in conjunction with the Department of Health.
There are approximately 1,700 hospitals in the Philippines, producing about 6 tons of infectious wastes per day. Health centers and health stations produce an additional 1.4 tons per day. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that the total existing capacity for medical waste incineration is 3.6 tons per day. Thus, more than 50 percent of medical wastes in the Philippines are not being safely managed. In 1994, BCEOM, a French consulting firm, conducted a study which revealed that of eight types of hospital waste generated in Metro Manila, three present a health hazard and need incineration to neutralize their capacity to proliferate diseases and toxic chemicals. These are pathological wastes, infectious wastes, and used needles.
The market is driven by new government initiatives at the national and local levels. The Department of Health has recently promulgated a regulation that requires the installation of incinerators at hospitals and other medical facilities as a prerequisite for the renewal of their yearly operational licenses. Some LGUs are also becoming active in promoting medical waste management measures. The cities of Manila and Muntinlupa and the municipality of Paranaque have initiated programs to provide hospitals with medical waste management facilities, mainly small incinerators. Additionally, MMDA has conducted (with the assistance from the French Government) a feasibility study for an integrated infectious waste management system.
More than 90 percent of all medical waste management equipment in the Philippines is imported. The governments of Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, and other countries are carrying out assistance programs designed to improve medical waste management practices and facilitate export of medical waste handling equipment to the Philippines. To date, the U.S. Government has not been active in this area.
Over the next five years, the most promising market opportunities in medical waste management are expected to be in:
* On-site pretreatment of biomedical wastes using small-capacity autoclave sterilizers and needle dispensers (other pretreatment and waste handling products have only nominal demand or compete with locally improvised materials);
* On-site burning of infectious wastes using small-capacity incinerators (chamber volume of 4 cubic meters or less); and
* Off-site burning of medical wastes through government (hospitals with excess incinerator capacity) and private contractors using large-capacity incinerators (like the one currently operated by Integrated Waste Management, Inc. in Calamba, Laguna).
International Trade Administration Homepage
Contact
Us
About ITA
ITA Site Map
Privacy Statement
U.S.Department
of Commerce International
Trade Administration