Mountain of garbage collapses at Philippines landfill, killing 1, burying dozens

Rescue workers searched on Friday for dozens of people buried under a mountain of garbage that collapsed at a landfill in the central Philippines, killing at least one.

Nearly 50 people were buried when the towering pile of refuse toppled onto them Thursday at Binaliw Landfill, a privately operated facility in Cebu City, officials said.

Landfill workers were among them but it wasn’t clear if any neighboring residents or others were, The Associated Press reported.

“There are signs of life,” Cebu Mayor Nestor Archival told a news briefing, adding that hundreds of rescuers already on site would be joined by “another 500” for search efforts he expected to last at least until Sunday.

Rescuers were limited in the equipment they could use because any sparks threatened to ignite methane gas emitted by the landfill, he said.

Thirty-four people remain missing, according to Archival, revising downward a tally of 38 given earlier on his Facebook page.

At least 12 employees have been pulled alive from the garbage and hospitalized.

Jason Morata, a city assistant public information officer, told AFP the trash mountain “must be four stories high.”

Aerial photos released by police showed what appeared to be multiple structures crushed under the weight of the garbage.

Morata said the buildings had housed “company offices, HR, admin, maintenance staff” for the private firm that runs the site.

“We’re considering several factors. If you remember, Cebu was struck by two typhoons in the latter part of 2025 … and also an earthquake,” he said.

Morata added that information was emerging in a trickle because there was “no signal” at the dump site.

The landfill “processes 1,000 tons of municipal solid waste daily, according to the website of operator Prime Integrated Waste Solutions. It has 110 employees, the AP says.

Calls to the company went unanswered on Friday.

“We don’t know what caused the collapse. It wasn’t raining at all,” said Marge Parcotello, a civilian staff member of the police department in Consolacion, a town that shares a common boundary with the dump site.

“Many of the victims are from Consolacion,” she said.

Safety and health worries have long surrounded landfills in many cities and towns in the Philippines, especially ones near poor communities whose residents scavenge for junk and leftover food in the garbage heaps, the AP points out.   

More than 200 people were killed in July 2000 when an avalanche of garbage consumed a Manila shanty town populated by several thousand scavengers.

That tragedy, the worst of its kind in Philippine history, prompted public outrage over open landfills. Legislation aimed at better regulation of waste management was passed months later.