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PIER 18 garbage station in Tondo stays despite a Supreme Court order to tidy up Manila Bay, according to an official of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
The Environmental Management Bureau-National Capital Region, said the facility was legal and posed no risk of marine pollution.
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Pier 18 is not, as stated in different blogs and websites, a dumping site or the replacement of the now infamous Smokey Mountain. It is a transit point for Manila’s garbage going to a landfill located in Navotas.
Ecologists and the zero-waste movement say that using Pier 18 as a garbage transfer station already violates the law against illegal dumps along with the Supreme Court order to clean and save Manila Bay.
Tons of mixed waste from Manila are being brought to Pier 18, hauled into barges and dumped at the landfill located within the foreshore area of Barangay Tanza, Navotas. The station has continued to release toxic leachate to Manila Bay according to Ecowaste director Rei Pancligan.
During the transfer of the garbage into the barges a lot of scavengers rummage through the garbage. This is a very dangerous activity because the scavengers are sometimes crushed alive by the bulldozers.
On January 2010 the Environmental Managment Bureau cleared Pier 18 and said the facility was legal and posed no risk of marine pollution.
Please note that you are not welcome to take pictures of Pier 18.
Source: Rio N. Araja – Manila Standard Today.
Pagpag is a Tagalog term for left over foods (particularly meat) from different fast food chains and restaurants that are thrown away in garbage bins. The urban poor scavenge these up and cook them again or sometimes eat them straight away from the garbage bag or bin. Often the food is washed in hot water to kill bacteria. However food found in garbage bins contains bacteria such as salmonella which cannot be killed through this cooking process. Yet those living in abject poverty have no other choice than to risk eating such food as dying from hunger is the only other alternative.
To learn more about “pagpag” I recommend to read the article “Pagpag: Survival Food for the Poorest of the Poor” written by photo journalist Dennis Villegas. You can find his article here in his blog.
Two very disturbing documentary videos: