COTABATO CITY – The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy (MENRE) – BARMM was present to witness another hauling of hazardous waste from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) – Cotabato branch, the first from the said establishment.

Director of the MENRE-Environment Management Services Ustadh Jalani M. Pamlian led the team from MENRE to inspect and witness the hauling of hazardous wastes from BSP-Cotabato on October 24, 2022. This is the first-ever conduct of such activity by BSP-Cotabato branch. The hazardous wastes include lead compounds [D406], used oil [I101], cadmium and its compounds [D404], containers of toxic chemicals, waste from electrical and electronics equipment (WEEE) [M506], mercury and its compounds [D407] and special wastes [M507] totaling to 3.1297 metric tons.

The inspecting team made sure that relevant documents such as ‘Permit to Transport’ and ‘Hazardous Waste Manifest System’ among others were at-hand and duly-signed and that there was proper wearing of PPEs by the workmen in-charge of loading the materials to the hauling truck.

BSP-Cotabato employed the services of DCH Ecogreen Solutions as their accredited hauling partner. DCH Ecogreen Solutions will then transport the hazardous wastes to accredited Treatment, Storage and Disposal (TSD) facilities for proper treatment.

As prescribed by RA 6969, otherwise known as the “Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990”, all entities generating hazardous wastes are responsible and held liable for their generated hazardous wastes up until such time that a duly accredited Treatment, Storage and Disposal (TSD) facility issues a certificate for the treatment. No transport of hazardous waste is allowed unless the transporter has secured permits from MENRE.

Pursuant to the Act’s Chapter 7, Section 26 (2), a waste generator shall continue to own and be responsible for the hazardous waste generated or produced in the premises until the hazardous waste has been certified by the waste treater as had been treated, recycled, reprocessed or disposed of and Section 27 (1) states that no transport of hazardous waste shall be allowed unless prior permit is secured from the MENRE.