With
the continuing battle against plastic pollution in the country, Philippine
business leaders highlight their initiatives and show
support for the Extended Producer Responsibility.
Extended
Producer Responsibility or EPR is an environmental policy approach introduced
in the 1990s for accelerating the transition to sustainable waste management
and a circular economy and more and more businesses worldwide are on board.
EPR
relies on two factors - improvement of product design and recyclability and improvement
of waste management systems - and businesses here in the Philippines have
stepped up to the challenge, taking sustainability seriously, by working on
both upstream and downstream measures to address the plastic crisis.
Coca-Cola
Philippines is continuously moving forward with its “World Without Waste”
campaign, a global effort of the Coca-Cola Company that aims to successfully
recycle used bottles to new ones. In the Philippines, Coca-Cola’s
one-billion-peso recycling facility is already nearing completion with a target
to be open this year.
Meanwhile,
Nestle Philippines which aims to make 100% of its packaging recyclable by 2021
recently launched its “Tibayanihan” project. This project upcycles used foil
packs of its powdered milk into plastic school chairs and tables. This project
is for the benefit of elementary schools in the vicinity of Nestlé factories
and distribution centers.
On the
other hand, Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines, Inc. is working on its “War on
Waste” initiative to accomplish its goal of achieving 100% recyclability in its
packaging by 2025. Currently, Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines, Inc. is working
with the government for the
release of their new recycled PET bottles.
Unilever
Philippines is committed to transforming all of its plastic packaging into a
reusable, recyclable, or compostable material. To do this, Unilever Philippines
has a “Misis Walastik” campaign, a community-based waste collection program
that gives incentives to the people who surrender sachets and other single-use
plastics. The program is present in over 370 barangays across Metro Manila and
nearby provinces through partnerships with LGUs, private organizations, and
other stakeholders in the waste value chain.
NutriAsia
also introduced to the public the concept of refilling stations to reduce
single-use packaging through its pilot program “Bring Your Own Bote (BYOB)”.
People can visit the first BYOB site in Bonifacio Global City and bring their
reusable bottles and ask for a refill of NutriAsia products. The company is
also looking at expanding the project to other key cities in the Philippines.
Like
Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and Unilever are also looking into recycled plastics rather
than relying on virgin plastics for their products and alternative delivery
systems and waste collection - creating a more circular economy.
Businesses
taking the lead and taking responsibility for their products like what these
companies are doing is a great foundation for EPR and something that could be
replicated by others but with support from the government in terms of mandatory
legislation and proper implementation.
EPR is
also gaining traction with legislators in Congress with House Bill 9147 or The
Single-Use Plastic Products Regulation Act and Senate Bill 2425 or the Extended
Producer Responsibility Act of 2021 which both seek to enact mandatory EPR.
There
seems to be continuing progress for the adoption of an EPR scheme in the
Philippines. Discussions on the specific
EPR model and stakeholder groups roles are being conducted. A recent study by
the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) presented a customized EPR scheme for the
Philippines. It proposes a mandatory EPR scheme for all product packaging with
a three-year transition phase for obliged businesses to redesign their product
packaging and eliminate unnecessary plastics. In their proposed scheme, the
responsibility of implementing the scheme for building high-quality recycling
capacity should be assumed by an industry-led, non-profit Producer
Responsibility Organization (PRO), acting as the system operator, with strict
monitoring and control systems carried out by the government.
The
government now faces the task of passing the EPR bill with the implementing
rules and regulations. Businesses, on the other hand, continue implementing
their solutions to address plastic pollution.
With
all this progress, WWF Philippines is releasing a follow-up report in January
2022 which presents a detailed customized EPR model and roadmap for the
Philippines to guide and help prepare stakeholders for what could come. We hope
this consolidates all these efforts to stop plastic pollution in the
Philippines.
About WWF
WWF is
one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation
organizations, with over 5 million supporters and a global network active in
over 100 countries. WWF's mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth's
natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony with
nature, by conserving the world's biological diversity, ensuring that the use
of renewable natural resources is sustainable, and promoting the reduction of
pollution and wasteful consumption.
WWF-Philippines
has been working as a national organization of the WWF network since 1997. As
the 26th national organization in the WWF network, WWF-Philippines is
successfully implementing various conservation projects to help protect some of
the most biologically-significant ecosystems in Asia.
No comments:
Post a Comment