A South Korea-based company is putting up a $12 million nature-friendly fertilizer plant in Lipa, Batangas to produce 6,000 metric tons (MT) per day of organic fertilizer; 70 percent of which will be exported to Japan.

DP Pure Environment Inc., (DPPE), a subsidiary of Daepoong Fertilizer Co. Ltd. of South Korea, is anticipating to begin operation of this fertilizer plant in six to seven months. It is presently obtaining permits for the project.

“I lived in the Philippines for five years, and I know that this plant will help the country in its garbage problem,” said Jongmin M. Lee, DPPE chief executive officer, in a press briefing.

The plant will make use of both biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste materials. It has a capacity of using 12,000 MT of garbage materials per day and will recover 50 percent of this volume in the form of organic fertilizer.

The remaining 50 percent from non-biodegradable materials is broken down in the fermentation process.

“Every kind of waste produced, even glass with its hexagonal molecular structure, can be broken down into organic fertilizer,” he said.

Lee said his company has an exclusive patent for this unique technology.

DPPE has tested the technology in China and has proven an increase in yield in the use of its organic fertilizer in Japan, Korea, and China. Increase in yield by 5.7 percent compared to traditional way of farming was observed in rice fields in Japan. This fertilizer can be used for fruit gardens, forested lands, flower gardens, golf courses, reclaimed land, and agricultural lands such as those planted to rice and corn, Lee said

The plant will be located within the Lima Technology Center, an industrial estate in Malvar-Lipa, Batangas. It will avail of tax incentives given by the Philippine Export Zone Authority (PEZA). Seventy percent of the fertilizer production will be supplied to Mitsubishi of Japan while 30 percent of the production is planned to be donated to a local town.

DPPE uses what it claims to be a low cost and high efficiency treatment involving “fermentation excrement,” a kind of biological treatment that enables fast degradation of waste materials and production of an odor-free fertilizer in seven days.

The plant’s other advantages are treatment of waste water and thus no discharge of waste water, economy of water use for the treatment of waste, and export revenue from the organic fertilizer.

Local government units (LGU) may find a partner in DPPE in eliminating their waste since the company can use these garbage as its input for the fertilizer manufacturing. The venture, Lee said, is profitable as the fertilizer costs $5 per 20 kilos.

“Those who dispose garbage in Payatas still pay $1 per ton to be able to throw garbage there. But we will turn their garbage into (valuable) fertilizer,” said Lee.