New 6 by Roman Cruz - improving stores waste water BOD level

NU6 #2: SOLID WASTE CATCHMENT BASIN

                Installed on Kitchen Back sink

by: Roman M. Cruz

The company’s support tot the DENR’s thrust on ensuring the water effluent quality or the waste water discharge was highlighted in the form of the CP2P launching program or the Cleaner Production Pollution Prevention in the stores to which we are required to maintain our BOD level to the standard of 50mg/L. BOD means Biochemical oxygen demand. It is theamount of dissolved oxygen that must be present in water in order for microorganisms to decompose the organic matter in the water, used as a measure of the degree of pollution. The lower BOD level means better performance and management of the store in terms of its quality water effluent management program. Any consistent deviation on this area will put the store under strict scrutiny by the DENR and might lead to store closure.

As a backgrounder, the waste water discharge from our stores are a complete mix of oil, grease, liquid waste from left over drinks, water used from cleaning and sometimes if the sink drains are defective or detached, solid food particles goes down also to the store sewerage pipes leading to the country’s general waste water canals. These stuffs are the things that increase the BOD level of the waste water. With the standard 50mg/L BOD, generally it is quite a challenge in the store considering the nature of our business. Our corporate Pollution Control Officer, however lobbies to at least decrease our BOD level to < 500mg/L the ideal BOD level for fast food restaurants to which the standard we are now following.

Last year was quite a challenge for me in my store when we are highlighted as one of the stores with a very high BOD level at 1069 mg/L, having this result it means we have to do something in reducing our BOD level through lessening the pollutants that goes through our sewerage pipes. During our team game planning, I suggested the following practices to lower down our BOD level.

1.     Separate Waste receptacle of liquid waste (leftovers). Liquid wastes are put into water containers with plastic liners. When the container is half full, the wastewater is pulled up in the station and safe keep in the garbage room. Since the city government runs the garbage collection, they have the capability to treat this wastewater before fielding it in the public sewerage canals thus lessening the effluent discharge of the store and more so, protecting our environment.

2.     Improvised sink drain compartment. This is a stainless compartment placed in the kitchen sink to capture all the solid waste particles like food debris and oil to prevent these pollutants going directly in the sewerage pipes.

With the improvements, for the last four quarters our BOD level now is ranging from 160-200 mg/L. Just last month, our latest BOD reading is now at 160 mg/L.

Please see the following for reference. 4