WASTE-TO-ENERGY, hereafter W2E so I don't have to type it out entirely every time, seems like a good idea on its face. Instead of rendering vast amounts of land useless by creating landfills to bury garbage, the waste can instead be burned in an incinerator, which can in turn fire a boiler and create steam to drive a turbine connected to a generator. Solid waste is eliminated, or at least reduced to an easily manageable, tiny volume of largely inert ash, and another source of electricity is made available; and a highly reliable one at that, since people being what they are, trash is a virtually inexhaustible resource.

The city government of Cebu is sold on the idea, and recently approved a joint venture agreement with a Chinese company, New Sky Environment and Technology Co. Ltd. (operating here as a subsidiary, New Sky Philippines) to construct and operate a W2E facility in the city. Under the 40-year contract, the city will provide 800 metric tons of solid waste per day, paying a fee of between P1,150 and P1,300 per ton, or between P920,000 and P1.04 million per day, if you prefer to think of it that way. In return, the city will receive 3.0 percent of the proceeds of the sale of electricity generated by the facility, and 5.0 percent of the revenue from the sale of 'other by-products,' whatever those may be.