Non Com POPs Project

PROJECT TARGET

 

The Philippines is one of the countries with serious interest to adequately address POPs problems with strong public involvement. Lack of adequate alternatives for the destruction of POPs (mainly PCBs containing equipment and wastes) has resulted in export of POPs wastes at very high cost, which is currently the only option in the country for proper management of PCBs wastes by the owners. The Government of the Philippines, recognizing the hazards of inadequate PCBs management in the country, issued in 2004 the Philippine Chemical Control Order (CCO) - DENR Administrative Order No.01 Series of 2004 for PCBs, which require registration, labeling, safe handling and final ban and phase-out of use or storage of PCBs within 10 years after the effective date of the Order. The document can be found on this address: http://www.emb.gov.ph/chemicals/dao2004-01.pdf

 

The Project will assist the Philippines in operating the CCO through ensuring safe handling and environmentally sound storage and destruction of PCBs. The project will make possible the implementation of specific elements of the Stockholm Convention through demonstration and removal of barriers to the deployment of alternative, non-combustion POPs destruction technologies that can prevent the formation and release to all media of POPs listed in Annex C of the Convention.

 

Based on the identified stockpile, the destruction facility will be utilized at full capacity of 750 tonnes annually until 2014, which is the date given in the CCO for disposal of all PCBs containing equipment and wastes in the Philippines. The sustainability of the Project is ensured by the fact that PNOC-PAFC, in partnership with the Government, will be assuring a flow of PCBs-containing equipment and wastes to the destruction unit over the period. 

 

The Project will last four years (48 months). The first 24 months will be committed to parallel activities of tendering process, obtaining necessary operating permits, including conducting necessary environmental impact assessment, designing, constructing and testing of the selected non-combustion technology to be deployed, and generally planning and organizing, among other things, such activities as a comprehensive public participation and involvement programme, and a comprehensive, participatory monitoring and evaluation programme.

 

The second 24 months of Project time will cover the demonstration phase that is the destruction of 1,500 tonnes of PCB containing equipment and wastes as the first part of the 6,879 tonnes actually identified during the initial inventory process. Also included during this twenty-four months operational phase would be the continued implementation of the broadly based public participation and involvement programme, and the monitoring and evaluation programme.

 

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