After Deadly Rizal Landfill Collapse, BAN Toxics Demands Action to Address Waste Crisis at the Source

Rodriguez, Rizal- A massive trash slide struck the Rizal Provincial Sanitary Landfill (RPSL) on February 20, 2026, in Barangay San Isidro, Rodriguez, Rizal, resulting in at least one confirmed fatality and leaving two individuals missing. About 420,000 cubic meters of waste collapsed, burying three units of heavy equipment.

Environmental NGO BAN Toxics is calling for a thorough and independent investigation into the landfill collapse and a full review of the facility’s compliance with environmental and safety standards, while also urging the government to tackle waste crisis and plastic pollution at the source.

Residents and waste workers dispute the Montalban Disaster Risk Reduction Office’s report of three casualties, with witnesses fearing more were buried. Allegations also claim company marshals prioritized retrieving heavy equipment over rescuing victims and offered money to families to leave possible remains in the waste.

BAN Toxics stresses the need to verify reported deaths and injuries, provide immediate support to affected families, end the intimidation of residents and waste workers seeking accountability, and ensure full transparency to deliver justice and prevent future disasters.

RPSL is operated by International Solid Waste Integrated Management Specialist, Inc. (ISWIMS) through its subsidiary, Green Leap Solid Waste Management, Inc. ISWIMS, which also runs a landfill in San Mateo, Rizal, faced a 2024 Senate inquiry over alleged labor violations in Quezon City. RPSL waste workers, who often pay for their own protective gear, are demanding that landfill fees be used to support affected families.

“We must formalize and protect informal waste workers and scavengers, ensuring their occupational safety, rights, access to protective equipment, social protection, and compensation funds during disasters. Despite being on the frontlines of waste management and exposed to toxic chemicals, they remain neglected,” said Thony Dizon, Advocacy and Campaign Officer of BAN Toxics.

The February 20 trash slide adds to RPSL’s history of disasters, including six previous collapses, an April 2025 fire, and seasonal leachate floods. On February 24, the DENR suspended operations in the landfill’s Phase 5, which covers around six hectares.

BAN Toxics calls for a comprehensive assessment of all landfills, both private and government-owned, to ensure strict compliance with regulatory and operational standards and to protect workers and nearby communities from environmental and health hazards.

The recent disaster echoes past landfill tragedies, including the deadly collapse at Payatas in 2000, which claimed more than 200 lives and buried thousands of homes, and the January 2026 trash slide at the Binaliw Landfill in Cebu City that left 36 dead and 18 injured. Although the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (RA 9003) mandates waste reduction, diversion, and resource recovery, implementation has fallen short.

BAN Toxics highlighted the need for a comprehensive review of RA 9003 and its implementation. Under the law, Local Government Units (LGUs) must divert at least 25 percent of solid waste through reuse, recycling, composting, and other recovery measures, with targets increasing every three years. Yet many LGUs fail to comply, leaving large volumes of waste unsegregated, uncollected, or improperly disposed of.

The group also emphasized strengthening Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) to reduce waste sent to landfills by improving their efficiency and increasing funding for LGUs. A 2023 Commission on Audit (COA) report indicates that only 39 percent of barangays (16,418 of 42,046) had operational MRFs in 2021.

“Government action has largely focused on managing waste after it is generated rather than on prevention, leaving reduction and reuse weakly enforced and landfill disasters recurring,” said Dizon.

“The government must instead address the waste crisis and plastic pollution at the source: prioritize waste prevention and reduction, cut reliance on plastics, especially single-use plastics, and hold producers and corporations accountable for the full lifecycle of their products,” he added.

BAN Toxics calls for ensuring that the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law includes enforceable targets for plastic reduction and reuse, alongside promoting zero-waste strategies, single-use plastic bans, and a comprehensive Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products and Packaging (NEAPP) list covering disposable plastics—prioritizing waste prevention over expanding landfill capacity. Corporations should be required to cut plastic production and use, and shift to refill and reuse systems.

The group further warned against using recent landfill collapses to justify waste incineration or waste-to-energy projects as solutions for high-volume landfill waste, stressing that burning plastics releases toxic pollutants and poses additional environmental and health risks.

“We should invest in the effective implementation of solid waste laws and in sustainable, environmentally sound waste management, focusing on reducing waste at the source rather than relying on downstream disposal. This disaster is not an isolated event—it is a warning. Without decisive reforms centered on waste prevention, corporate accountability, and workers’ rights, communities across the country will remain at risk,” Dizon concluded. #