ANGELES CITY — The local government here is set to launch the waste-to-cement program that will exchange collected plastics into cement, according to Mayor Carmelo Lazatin Jr.
The local chief executive said that collected plastics will come from the Walang Plastikan: Plastik Palit Bigas project following the meeting with Republic Cement and Building Materials Inc. managing director Angela Edralin-Valencia.
Lazatin said that the usage of polyethylene plastics, polystyrene packaging material, and other non-recyclable combustibles were discussed to manufacture cement, while Valencia confirmed that polyethylene plastics can serve as an alternative fuel to manufacture cement.
Under the program, every one metric ton of shredded waste will be converted to 10 bags of cement while five bags of cement is the equivalent to one metric ton of unshredded waste and the collected plastics will be made into cement, aside from the produced brick pavers.
All of the cement produced from the project, as well as the brick pavers will be solely used in the administration’s projects and minor repairs in public schools.
At least 1,465,546 kilos of plastic were collected and exchanged into rice thru the Walang Plastikan: Plastik Palit Bigas project since its launching on January 2022.