Mandaue City Councilor Joel Seno revealed that the city's recent benchmarking visit to General Santos City highlighted a major challenge: the lack of space for a public sanitary landfill. Seno noted that General Santos City, which has vast land area, operates a government-managed sanitary landfill that complies with environmental standards. This is something Mandaue cannot do due to its small territory.
Land scarcity hinders local landfill
“We are simply not blessed with that kind of area. We do not have the vast, open land required to accommodate a massive, localized public disposal facility of our own,” Seno said. The benchmarking visit took place during Mandaue City's turnover of P1 million in financial aid to General Santos City after a recent earthquake.
While there, the delegation inspected the city's engineered sanitary landfill and observed its operations. Seno described the facility as clean, odorless, and compliant with environmental standards. He said the delegation even stayed for about 30 minutes at the active landfill site to assess its condition.
GenSan landfill sets high standard
“Amazingly, there was absolutely no smell. The entire site was beautifully managed, exceptionally clean, and fully compliant with environmental standards,” Seno said. Mandaue still relies on private waste disposal facilities.
Seno expressed hope that the city can adopt best practices from General Santos City in landfill management, environmental protection, and disaster resilience to improve its own solid waste management system.
