{"id":425706,"date":"2024-11-27T21:38:30","date_gmt":"2024-11-27T21:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=425706"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-29T14:00:00","slug":"To-tackle-plastic-scourge-Philippines-makes-companies-pay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/To-tackle-plastic-scourge-Philippines-makes-companies-pay\/","title":{"rendered":"To tackle plastic scourge, Philippines makes companies pay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Long one of the world’s top sources of ocean plastic, the Philippines is hoping new legislation requiring big companies to pay for waste solutions will help clean up its act.<\/p>\n

Last year, its “Extended Producer Responsibility” (EPR) statute came into force — the first in Southeast Asia to impose penalties on companies over plastic waste.<\/p>\n

The experiment has shown both the promise and the pitfalls of the tool, which could be among the measures in a treaty to tackle plastic pollution that countries hope to agree on by December 1 at talks in South Korea.<\/p>\n

The Philippines, with a population of 120 million, generates some 1.7 million metric tons of post-consumer plastic waste a year, according to the World Bank.<\/p>\n

Of that, a third goes to landfills and dumpsites, with 35 percent discarded on open land.<\/p>\n

The EPR law is intended to achieve “plastic neutrality” by forcing large businesses to reduce plastic pollution through product design and removing waste from the environment.<\/p>\n

They are obliged to cover an initial 20 percent of their plastic packaging footprint, calculated based on the weight of plastic packaging they put into the market.<\/p>\n

The obligation will rise to a ceiling of 80 percent by 2028.<\/p>\n

The law covers a broad range of plastics, including flexible types that are commercially unviable for recycling and thus often go uncollected.<\/p>\n

It does not however ban any plastics, including the popular but difficult to recover and recycle single-use sachets common in the Philippines.<\/p>\n

So far, around half the eligible companies under the law have launched EPR programmes.<\/p>\n

Over a thousand more must do so by end-December or face fines of up to 20 million pesos ($343,000) and even revocation of their operating licences.<\/p>\n

– ‘Manna from heaven’ –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

The law hit its 2023 target for removal of plastic waste, Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones told AFP.<\/p>\n

It is “part of a broader strategy to reduce the environmental impact of plastic pollution, particularly given the Philippines’ status as one of the largest contributors to marine plastic waste globally.”<\/p>\n

The law allows companies to outsource their obligations to “producer responsibility organisations”, many of which use a mechanism called plastic credits.<\/p>\n

These allow companies to buy a certificate that a metric tonne of plastic has been removed from the environment and either recycled, upcycled or “co-processed” — burned for energy.<\/p>\n

PCX Markets, one of the country’s biggest players, offers local credits priced from around $100 for collection and co-processing of mixed plastics to over $500 for collection and recycling of ocean-bound PET plastic. Most are certified according to a standard administered by sister organisation PCX Solutions.<\/p>\n

The model is intended to channel money into the underfunded waste collection sector and encourage collection of plastic that is commercially unviable for recycling.<\/p>\n

“It’s manna from heaven,” former street sweeper Marita Blanco told AFP.<\/p>\n

A widowed mother-of-five, Blanco lives in Manila’s low-income San Andres district and buys plastic bottles, styrofoam and candy wrappers for two pesos (3.4 US cents) a kilogram (2.2 pounds).<\/p>\n

She then sells them at a 25 percent mark-up to charity Friends of Hope, which works with PCX Solutions to process them.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know that there was money in garbage,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If I do not look down on the task of picking up garbage, my financial situation will improve.”<\/p>\n

– ‘Still linear’ –<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

Friends of Hope managing director Ilusion Farias said the project was making a visible difference to an area often strewn with discarded plastic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Two years ago, I think you would have seen a lot dirtier street,” she told AFP.<\/p>\n

“Behavioural change is really slow, and it takes a really long time.”<\/p>\n

Among those purchasing credits is snack producer Mondelez, which has opted to jump directly to “offsetting” 100 percent of its plastic footprint.<\/p>\n

“It costs company budgets… but that’s really something that we just said we would commit to do for the environment,” Mondelez Philippines corporate and government affairs official Caitlin Punzalan told AFP.<\/p>\n

But while companies have lined up to buy plastic credits, there has been less movement on stemming the flow of new plastic, including through redesign.<\/p>\n

“Upstream reduction is not really easy,” said PCX Solutions managing director Stefanie Beitien.<\/p>\n

“There is no procurement department in the world that accepts a 20 percent higher packaging price just because it’s the right thing to do.”<\/p>\n

And while PCX credits cannot be claimed against plastic that is landfilled, they do allow for co-processing, with the ash then used for cement.<\/p>\n

“It’s still linear, not circular, because you’re destroying the plastic and you’re still generating virgin plastic,” acknowledged Leones of the environment ministry.<\/p>\n

Still, the law remains a “very strong policy”, according to Floradema Eleazar, an official with the UN Development Programme.<\/p>\n

But “we will not see immediate impacts right now, or tomorrow,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It would require really massive behavioural change for everyone to make sure that this happens.”<\/p>\n

cgm\/sah\/pdw<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Long one of the top sources of ocean plastic, the Philippines is hoping new legislation requiring big companies to pay for waste solutions will help clean up its act<\/p>\n

-Jam Sta Rosa
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Marita Blanco buys plastic waste for two pesos (3.4 US cents) a kilogram to be resold at a 25 percent markup to US charity Friends of Hope in its waste-to-cash programme<\/p>\n

-JAM STA ROSA
<\/figcaption><\/figure>

<\/p>\n

Among those purchasing credits is snack producer Mondelez, which has opted to jump directly to ‘offsetting’ 100 percent of its plastic footprint<\/p>\n

-JAM STA ROSA
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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