Waste analysis and characterisation study of a hill station: A case study of Baguio City, Philippines

A waste analysis and characterisation study requires urgent measures to regulate and to solve the piling up of garbage worldwide; this is an essential factor towards the projection of a feasible and environmentally acceptable solution. Baguio City is a favourite holiday destination during summer in the Philippines; initially designed as a hill station for 25,000 people, its population has now risen to 345,400, which doubles and even triples during peak seasons. As such, this study was conducted to determine the levels of waste generation and assess the current diversion method of its municipal solid waste to prevent the town from further deteriorating into unsustainable urbanisation. The results revealed that the total waste generated is 402,776.38 kg per day, wherein the average per capita waste generation for domestic sources is 0.4193 kg per day. Solid waste is composed of biodegradables (41.67%), recyclables (33.78%), residuals (24.15%) and special wastes (0.40%), with the average moisture level of the solid waste sample at 57.462%. With tourists contributing 19.69% of those wastes during peak events, the only recoverable wastes were biodegradables and recyclables, which have a diversion percentage of 23.28%. The study recommends to the city of Baguio to have its own engineered sanitary landfill, simulated GIS-based collection system and expanded waste recovery facility, to increase waste-diversion percentages and to decrease its expenditure for hauling, collecting, storing and transporting its solid waste, in order to adhere to its mission of creating a sustainable and enabling environment.