Ma Eddel Francesca DR Del Rosario

General Physics ES2-01

July 26, 2016

Engr. Francisco Javier

Environmental Practices of
Universal Robina Corporation's Sugar Mills

Universal Robina Corporation (URC) is one of the largest packaged foods companies in the
Philippines, tracing its roots to John Gokongwei Jr.'s beginnings as a trader. From a trading company to
Universal Corn Products and Consolidated Food Corporation, it has grown to become a well known "local" multinational company known to everyday Filipino consumers in the form of Jack 'n Jill, C2, Blend
45, Great Taste Coffee, and Nissin Cup noodles among others. URC has become a significant presence in
other ASEAN markets like China, Malaysia, Vietnam , Thailand, Singapore, and Indonesia.
At present, after several acquisitions and expansions, URC is now streamline and organized to
focus on three main groups of products: Branded Consumer Foods Group, Agro-Industrial Group, and
Commodity Foods Group. The corporation is known most for their branded consumer food products, but
this paper shall present their commodity food group that handles the production of flour and sugar, particularly that of as well as sugar-milling and refining.
Sugar is considered to be one of the most environmentally-taxing, yet economically significant
crops to cultivate and process. It is a subsistence crop for Filipinos that became leading export crop in the
world market. Plantations cover extensive land ranging from 360,000 to 390,000 hectares, destroying natural habitats and biodiversity as it is replaced with sugar monocropping. They need large volumes of water (1500-2000mm/ha/year) while growing all year round. Sugar plantations are associated with drying up
of rivers, reduction of soil fertility, soil erosion, and loss of biodiversity.
The production process involves washing of harvests to rid of soil, shredding of the cane sugar,
extraction of the cane juice, adding of Calcium Hydroxide/Lime for clarification, evaporation to syrup,
crystallization and centrifuging, and optionally, refinement for higher purity. This process produces considerable waste water, carbonation sludge and molasses. Specific pollution problems associated with sugar mills are wastewater pollutants (organic matter by-products, oil & grease from rolling mill), air pollu-

tant emissions (bagasse from bagasse shed, fly ash from boilers), molasses tank yard spillage, sugar
spillage, and lime water tank spillage.

Figure 1. Schematic diagram showing the steps on the sugar production process and some of the
by-products of the process.
As URC is more directly involved in the milling sub-sector than the farming sub-sector of the
sugar industry. They operate 5 sugar mills and 3 refineries in the Philippines. They have three mills in
Negros Oriental (URC-Ursumco, URC-Sonedco, and URC Tolong), one mill in Iloilo (URC-Passi) and
one mill in Cagayan (URC-Carsumco). They have a total capacity of milling 31,000 tons of sugar cane
and producing 33,000 bags of refined sugar per day.

With this scale of operation, they also have to deal with several tons of by-products that might
negatively affect the environment when unmanaged.
Table 1. Mills and Refineries owned by Universal Robina Corporation, their location and estimates on milling capacity in Tons of Cane per Day.
Company Name

Location

TC/D

URSUMCO

Universal Robina Sugar Milling

Corporation

Alangilanan, Manjuyod,
Negros Oriental & Bais,
City, Negros Oriental

8,000

SONEDCO

Southern Negros Development

Corporation

Kabankalan City, Negros 9,500

Oriental

CARSUMCO

Cagayan Robina Sugar Milling

Company

Sto. Domingo, Piat,

Cagayan

4,000

Tolong

Tolong Sugar Milling Co.

Sta. Catalina-Bayawan,
Negros Oriental

4,000

Passi

Passi (Iloilo) Sugar Central,

Incorporated

Man-it, Passi City, Iloilo

8000

URC reports that they believe they have complied with all applicable environmental laws and
regulations, namely the Pollution Control Law (R.A. No. 3931, as amended by P.D. 984), the Solid Waste
Management Act (R.A. No. 9003), the Clean Air Act (R.A. No. 8749), the Environmental Impact Statement System (P.D. 1586) and the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) Act of 1966 (R.A. No.
4850). The mitigation practice they have been most vocal about is their investment of wastewater treatments in its various facilities amounting to around P333 million as of September of 2007. They inaugurated a Waste Water Treatment Plant last 2008 in URSUMCO.
In the Sonedco area, URC is recycling bagasse from their mills to produce renewable energy that
can be connected to the grid though their 46 Megawatt Biomass Cogeneration Plant. They are to sell half
of the generated power to the national grid under a 25-year contract with the Department of Energy.
URC has also made the news as expand into renewable energy production using molasses to produce bioethanol in their Ethanol Distillery Plant in URSUMCO (Manjuyod, Negros Oriental) since 2013.
It is a way to reduce the country's dependence on fossil fuels and have a means of utilizing molasses that
are often stored in tanks or off shore at Campuyo Pier. By 2014, they partnered with Flying V to blend

bioethanol with gasoline. They also installed the "spent wash incineration boiler" that is said to be environmentally safe and hazard free. They are the first in Southeast Asia to use such technology that "assures
of an effective wastewater facility."
The untreated wastewater, if disposed improperly and had somehow reached their way to water
bodies can cause pollution through eutrophication, causing algal blooms, low levels of dissolved oxygen
and death of aquatic animals(fish kill). July of 2015, there was a fish kill in Bais City and Manjuyod, Negros Oriental which was traced to URSUMCO Ethanol Plant's untreated wastewater. It was investigated
by BFAR and DENR.
BFAR reported that their oxidation pond for treating wastewater was unable to hold the volume
of water during a downpour, causing wastewater spillage from the pond to the bay. While DENR noted
that this impounding dyke is insufficient to keep wastewater from seeping because it inly uses sandbags
and used tires. They were also possibly guilty of not complying with the construction of a nursery, as indicated in the Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC), and with other terms in the engineering geological and geohazard assessment report. They started operations before getting their ECC and mayor's
permit. They also have operated without the Air Pollution Source Equipment (APSE) indicated in ECC,
last 2015. They are temporarily closed until they can improve their operations. They are given time to
construct another oxidation pond.
Although their conversion of their low-valued molasses and bagasse into high valued renewable
fuel products that contributes to advocacy for renewable energy and food security, as expressed by Energy
Secretary Jericho Petilla, is laudable, there is no mention as to how they control their air emissions, their
prevention of spillage, what and how much goes to landfills, or the specifics of how they operate their
wastewater treatment facilities apart from their statements that they exist. Strict handling of operations
within the company is necessary, but it is more important to make sure that they are complying with the
terms and conditions set by our laws.
It has been said that there is a conflict between capitalism (corporations) and the environment for
it is the nature of capitalism to extract, produce and maximize profit, but there is increasing pressure for
them to show responsibility socially and environmentally as the people and the environment are the foundation for their existence. The case of Universal Robina Corporation has shown how a large corporation

has been juggling in this endeavor. They place large investments for a good cause but fail in upholding
their end of the bargain as they fail to comply and cause social and environmental damage as they possibly tried to cut corners for profit or simply failed to stick to the ideal operations. Either way, the environmental damage done is far more expensive than the fines they have to pay. Institutions made for profit
may find in hard to comply with environmental laws and regulations while meeting their financial goals.
Nevertheless, they are expected to develop, learn from experience, implement fully the practices
they swore on, comply with the laws, and truly fulfill the good cause they invested in.

References:
Universal Robina Corporation. Wikipedia
URC Sugar. http://urcsugar.com/
Universal Robina Corporation. http://www2.urc.com.ph/
Universal Robina Corporation. http://www.jgsummit.com.ph/universal-robina-corporation
Sugar and the Environment: Encouraging Better Management Practices in Sugar Production.
World Wildlife Fund
URC inaugurates Negros Biomass Plant. http://www.philstar.com/business/2015/07/03/1472567/
urc-inaugurates-negros-biomass-plant.
Morales, N.J. Universal Robina to Produce Ethanol. http://www.philstar.com/business/811713/
universal-robina-produce-ethanol
URC breaks ground for $35-M ethanol plant. http://www.philstar.com/business/
2013/04/24/934240/urc-breaks-ground-35-m-ethanol-plant
Gonzales, I.C. URC receives 1st ethanol order from Flying V. http://www.philstar.com/business/
2014/12/22/1405223/urc-receives-1st-ethanol-order-flying-v
URSUMCO Waste Water Treament Plant Inauguration. http://urcsugar.com/blog/221/ursumcowaste-water-treament-plant-inauguration/
Fabonero, V.F. Environmental Inspection in the Philippines. http://www.aecen.org/sites/default/
files/prtnrshp-docs/vietnam_inspection_training-_philippine_presentation.pdf
Gokongweis URC Sugar and Renewables-Balayan gets sugar milling license. http://foodevolution.com.ph/2016/03/1325/
Gomez, C. 3 Mills Get P5B Boost to Fight AFTA Impact. http://www.sra.gov.ph/3-mills-get-p5bboost-to-fight-afta-impact/
Sugarcane. http://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sugarcane
Matus, C.L. Negros ethanol plant suspended over fishkill. http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/712458/
negros-ethanol-plant-suspended-over-fishkill#ixzz4FiLkN74Z
Bustillo, R. Ethanol plant in Negros Oriental manifests to pay fines. http://cnnphilippines.com/
regional/2015/08/04/Ethanol-Plant%C2%A0-in-Negros-Oriental-manifests-to-pay-fines.html
Partlow, J.F. Ethanol plant in Bais City to be closed temporarily. http://www.philstar.com/region/
2015/08/16/1488696/ethanol-plant-bais-city-be-closed-temporarily