MANILA, Philippines – What to do with the overwhelming amount of debris and garbage left behind by Super Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan)?

A lot, apparently.

Instead of clogging up streets, rotting in overflowing dumpsites and causing disease, post-Yolanda detritus can be used to revive livelihood and even strengthen the disaster-preparedness of the community.

Such were the ideas shared during a post-disaster reconstruction seminar held by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on Friday, January 24, in Makati City.

During the seminar, Japanese private sector leaders explained how, after the 2011 East Japan tsunami devastated Higashi Matsushima City, they used debris from broken infrastructure, fallen trees and other detritus to help their city recover from disaster.

Like Yolanda, the tsunami submerged communities and destroyed millions worth of infrastructure. Tsunami waves as high as 10.35 meters (34 feet) reached 7 kilometers inland, decimating everything in its path and leaving tons of debris. Fallen tree trunks, mounds of tires, metal sheets, and pipes were just some of the kinds of debris the locals had to clean up.

With a herculean task ahead of the city, the private sector jumped in to help.

The Higashi Matsushima Construction Industry Association (HMCIA) volunteered to help the city government deal with the garbage problem.

Together, they devised a “maximum recycle” plan, said HMCIA president Koichi Hashimoto.

“Our plan was to recycle about 97% of the total amount of debris. We ended up recycling 97.2% or 1.07 million tons.”

Here’s how they were able to do it:

1. Efficient segregation

They carefully segregated all the debris into 19 specific classifications. Common debris types like tires, batteries, plastics and metals ended up in separate piles that were then brought to a temporary storage area. 

Using trommel screens (rotating perforated cylindrical drums), they cleaned debris covered by layers of sand and soil.

2. Selling ‘junk’

Once clean, debris made of plastic or metal were sold to individual buyers or junk shops. Money from these transactions went to the rehabilitation funds of the local government.

3. Turn into fertilizer

For the wooden debris, they used a shredder to reduce them into wood chips and shavings which were then dumped into a big hole full of soil. The decomposing wood shavings then made the soil more fertile. Usually, this process takes two years but because of a special microorganism they put in the soil, the decomposition took only 3 months.

The fertile soil can then be used by farmers to revive their fields and return to their livelihood.

4. Structural support

By adding 3% cement to the soil, the soil became hard enough to provide structural support. HMCIA used sacks of it to strengthen the city’s new secondary sea wall. 

The cement-fortified soil was also spread out along the city’s coastline to stop coastal erosion.

5. ‘Porous pipes’

HMCIA and the city government even made sure its temporary dump sites were safe and hygienic.

Hills of trash exposed to the sun’s glare all day have a tendency to self-combust or burn on their own when their temperature reaches 60 degrees Celsius. The phenomenon has already been observed in Tacloban dump sites.

To remedy this, the Japanese installed plastic pipes dotted with holes in between the trash. The 5-centimeter holes allowed the heat accumulating in between the garbage to escape from the bigger hole at the top of the pipe, allowing temperatures to stabilize.

The “porous pipes” also allow the stench of garbage to escape. According to Hashimoto, this lessens the overall stink of the dumpsite. The pipes were so effective in eliminating smell that eventually, flies stopped going to the garbage.

Tacloban garbage problem

Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez, who attended the seminar, appreciated the input from the Japanese delegation and gave assurances that his city also plans to recycle debris.

“There are some groups now doing recycling as far as getting some of the recyclables, separating debris into biodegradable and non-biodegradable,” he said. 

But he added that, especially in the days right after Yolanda, there was no more time to recycle. Tacloban in Leyte was one of the cities hit hardest by the typhoon. 

“Because the debris were in the middle of residential areas in many areas, there was no more time to recycle. We had to establish temporary dumpsites just to get out the debris as fast as we could.” 

The priority then was to clear out the roads so that trucks carrying relief goods could reach the typhoon victims. 

And though it is now more than two months since Yolanda hit Tacloban, “we’re still on first response, meaning, they’re still delivering relief goods.”

He said this has led to traffic jams and not enough roads to accommodate both relief good trucks and garbage trucks.

“In actuality, we don’t also have enough roads for all the trucks. They’re still delivering relief goods and that has to go on. We can’t mix the trucks for relief and debris.”

Trash to treasure

But Hashimoto is optimistic that all the strategies used by the Japanese city can be applied to Yolanda-hit communities.

For instance, instead of using pine wood for the wood shavings, Yolanda-hit LGUs can use the thousands of coconut tree trunks left behind by the typhoon.

The Higashi Matsushima government used a cash-for-work program to provide manpower for moving debris and segregating them. The Department of Social Welfare and Development has a similar program in Eastern Visayas. More than 15,000 typhoon survivors have reportedly benefited from the initiative since it began on November 24.

Aside from packing relief goods, the work includes debris clean-up, coastal clean-up, canal dredging and communal gardening. 

The only barrier to maximizing debris is thinking of them as worthless. 

“These debris are still our property. We should not ruin them just because they have become debris.” – Rappler.com