Senator Raffy Tulfo has pushed for the establishment of a national energy policy and regulatory framework using waste-to-energy technologies in the country.

Tulfo, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy, sponsored Senate Bill 2267, or the Waste-to-Energy Act which promotes the use of waste-to-energy facilities for the proper management and disposal of household wastes.

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri also filed a similar measure—SB 1746— to address solid waste management problems and provide an alternative source of energy.

Zubiri previously noted that “as the country develops, the population increases rapidly along with more improvements in our way of life, increasing the volume of waste created.”

Tulfo on Friday conducted an ocular visit to the first-ever “engineered sanitary landfill” and the country’s largest waste management facility run by Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation in Tarlac.

During his visit, Tulfo was welcomed by MCWMC founding director Holger Holz and chairman of the management committee Rufo Colayco, along with other boards of directors.

The senator lauded the MCWMC’s solid waste management, with an estimated 5,000 tons of garbage daily being collected from Central Luzon and different provinces such as Pampanga, Zambales, and Bataan.

The 100-hectare engineered sanitary landfill was built in 2002 under the government’s service contracting in partnership with the Clark Development Corporation.

Once the measure is enacted, Tulfo said the MCWMC is eyed to become the country’s first waste-to-energy facility as it “is compliant to Republic Act 9003 or Solid Waste Management Act.”

In a meeting, Tulfo and the MCWMC officials discussed the significance of the WTE facility that would further the lifespan of the landfill by at least 30 years.

Tulfo told company officials that some sectors raised concerns over insufficient feedstock or waste to fuel future WTE facilities. In response, Colayco noted that such concerns remain “unfounded since the amount of waste continues to increase as the population grows.”

He is set to visit a WTE facility in Singapore to acquire knowledge regarding their operations and apply their best practices in establishing a WTE facility in the Philippines.

“The observations from this visit will help me and my legislative team in promoting the WTE bill to fellow lawmakers to ensure its swift passage into law,” he said.

Tulfo previously said that in many countries, including Japan, Sweden, South Korea, and Singapore, the waste-to-energy technology and system has long been relied upon.

He noted that the Environmental Management Bureau has forecasted that 92 million tons of trash are expected to be produced in the country between 2022 and 2025.