Manila, Pasig, Taguig residents to receive incentives for plastic

MANILA, Philippines - Residents of Manila, Pasig and Taguig should think twice before throwing away plastic sachets.

A private company is now giving incentives for every kilo of soft plastic that households in these three cities can turn over to their barangays.

At a forum in Taguig earlier this month, Ed Sunico, Unilever Philippines vice president for Sustainable Business and Communications announced the tripartite partnership between his company, the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) and the city governments of Manila, Pasig and Taguig for a plastic waste recovery initiative dubbed “Misis Walastik Program.”

“We are mindful of the need to be efficient with our packaging and to find solutions in addressing post-consumer waste, especially at a time when resources are becoming scarce and communities increasingly vulnerable to climate change impacts,” he said.

Sunico cited figures of the National Solid Waste Management Commission showing that each person contributes about 0.6 kilo of solid waste daily. 

He said that in Metro Manila alone, 7.2 million kilos of solid waste are produced daily and that about 28 percent of these are recycled, mostly made of plastic.

“The good thing is a majority of the solid wastes are plastic and plastic can be recycled. However, most of these plastic wastes do go to landfills instead of to recycling facilities,” Sunico pointed out.

Under Unilever’s program, for every one kilogram of plastic that a household can turn over to partner community-based organizations (CBOs) in the barangay, they will receive a coupon worth P5.00

The coupons can be used in Unilever partner stores to claim Unilever products.

Unilever Philippines marketing director for homecare Anna Mangilin clarified that the plastic that will be accepted by the CBOs from the households will not be limited to Unilever brands.

“Any type of plastic, regardless of brand. Our primary aim is to reduce plastic waste,” she said.

Mangilin said the target of the program is to collect at least 200 million pieces of plastic from 50 barangays across Taguig, Manila and Pasig by the end of 2017.

“Our partner local governments will be advocating for their constituents to collect plastic sachets. Community-based organizations will then collect sachets from households in their respective barangays. They then turn over the sachets to a hauler, which will then turn these over to us,” Mangilin further explained.

The hauled plastic will be turned over to recycling facilities of the Villar Foundation to be converted into chairs that could be used in schools.

“Throughout the process, the PBSP will be conducting monitoring and evaluation,” Mangilin added.

Mangilin said they aim to replicate the program in key cities across the country by 2020.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, who attended the launching of the program, likewise stressed the need to step up efforts to recover plastic waste.

Villar cited a 2015 study published in the Science Journal showing that among 192 countries in world, the Philippines is the third biggest contributor of plastic waste in the ocean, next to China and Indonesia.

“We need to change this degrading global image, not only for our reputation as a nation but for our health, natural resources and the future of the next generation,” Villar said.

Villar commended Unilever for its plastic waste recovery initiative, saying that encouraging household participation by providing incentives proved to be an efficient scheme.