The Philippines has approved the development of the country’s first large‑scale waste-to-energy (WTE) facility in New Clark City in the province of Tarlac, following a series of landfill trash slides in recent months.
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WTE is a process that converts non-recyclable waste into usable energy, typically electricity or heat, through technologies such as incineration or anaerobic digestion. It reduces the volume of waste sent to landfills while generating power from materials that would otherwise be discarded. The Philippines currently has roughly about six WTE facilities in operation, mostly small-scale projects.
The planned US$70 million facility will have the capacity to convert 600 metric tonnes of waste per day into 12 megawatts (MW) of electricity, enough to supply locally sourced clean energy for over 10,000 homes in Clark and surrounding communities, according to a statement by the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), which owns and manages New Clark City.
Officials have said that the new WTE facility aims to ease pressure on overburdened landfills and help avert future garbage crises by cutting waste volume by up to 90 per cent through controlled thermal treatment.
The project’s approval follows a massive trash slide on 20 February at the Sitio Lukutan Munti sanitary landfill in Rodriguez, which killed at least one person, left two missing, and buried three pieces of heavy equipment under an estimated 420,000 cubic meters of waste.
A month earlier, a towering mound of garbage at the Binaliw landfill in Cebu City collapsed, killing at least 36 people and injuring at least 18 others.
Secretary of Department of Environment and Natural Resources Raphael Lotilla (center left) met with BCDA President and CEO Joshua M. Bingcang at the New Clark City on 20 February to discuss the development of the country’s first large-scale WTE facility. Image: BCDA
Local officials and environmental groups have pointed out that both disasters showed a broader structural problem of a national waste system that relies heavily on landfills that are often overloaded, poorly engineered or monitored.
As of June 2023, the Phillipines had 279 operating sanitary landfills nationwide, with higher concentrations around major urban and industrial regions such as Central Luzon, the periphery of Metro Manila, and key city clusters in Cebu and Davao. However, this capacity is widely seen as insufficient for the country’s daily waste generation of 61,000 metric tonnes, with only a small share of which is recycled, while most is dumped or landfilled, with a significant portion leaking into rivers and oceans.
Most recent data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources show several of the country’s largest landfills have already maxed out their capacity, with many others close to their limits, even as annual solid waste is projected to rise from about 9 million tonnes in 2000 to nearly 24.5 million tonnes by 2040.
‘Regressive technological lock-in’
Nonprofit Eco-waste Coalition said that although the WTE technology is poised as a remedy for the solid waste crisis, it risks a “regressive technological lock-in” for local government units who will avail of the technology.
“It threatens to saddle local government units with onerous long-term debts, expose communities to long-term health impacts due to toxic pollutants that current monitoring systems cannot adequately detect, aggravate impacts of climate change as it emits greenhouse gases, and burden electricity consumers with higher costs for a power source that is dirtier than coal,” said the group in a statement.
The Movement for a Liveable Cebu called for more sustainable solutions to the garbage crisis built on reduction, reuse, recycling, and bio-reduction, where microorganisms and enzymes are used to reduce environmental contaminants, instead of costly infrastructure like incinerators.
Brex Arevalo, cilmate and anti-Incineration campaigner of nonprofit Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) Asia Pacific warned that all government-led consultations on WTE show a “trend of policy railroading and exclusion”.
“The government itself has not even done any scientific studies whatsoever on basic considerations like waste feedstock characteristics, incinerator ash disposal, and costs to taxpayers,” Arevalo told Eco-Business.
The country’s Clean Air Act and Ecological Solid Waste Management Act prohibit incineration that emits poisonous and toxic fumes, but a 2002 Supreme Court ruling clarified that not all incineration is banned – only polluting forms.
DENR issued guidelines for setting up WTE facilities that comply with emissions standards, treating the technology as a cleaner alternative to landfills. The Department of Energy (DOE) now promotes WTE as part of the energy mix, with pending bills seeking a national framework and to classify WTE as renewable energy.
Aside from the planned facility in New Clark City, the DOE identified five potential sites for WTE projects under the sixth round of the Green Energy Auction, with a total expected capacity of around 170 (MW).
The Phillipines previously approved a similar large-scale project in Cebu in 2022, but the US$87 million plant by New Sky Energy never broke ground due to permitting delays, strong community opposition and environmental concerns, with the company formally withdrawing from the project in November 2025.
