CCBO in Philippines

Each day, plastics leak into the waters around the more than 7,500 islands of the Philippines, driven by rising production and consumption of single-use plastics. USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean (CCBO) program is engaging across the Philippines to stop the flow of plastic pollution to the waters within and surrounding the country.

Engagement Sites

• Metro Manila
  • Across Metro Manila, USAID’s Women in Waste’s Economic Empowerment Activity is empowering women to advance in the waste sector through training, mentorship, and the opportunity to receive funding to establish or expand entrepreneurial waste businesses.
  • In Pasig City, USAID is transforming local organics and single-use plastics into usable products, such as ocean and climate change-friendly compost and eco-bricks, through a community “Eco Hub.” 
  • In Parañaque City, a new USAID-supported Circular Center collects and enables low-value plastics and other waste to be made into new recycled plastic goods, creates jobs for local women, and serves as a community education center.
  • In Manila City, the program is supporting women-owned sari-sari convenience stores to earn additional income as local “waste to cash” stations that buy plastic waste from the community and put it back into a developing local circular economy. USAID partners are also building local government capacity and helping local waste collectors to establish profitable, sustainable waste businesses.

• In Tingloy Island and Batangas City, USAID is supporting a new island-based circular economy and barangay waste management system by strengthening local policies and establishing revenue-generating recovery centers and new local businesses that will support the circular economy. 
• In Iloilo City, USAID is building the capacity of waste collectors and aggregators, while helping the local government to implement and monitor new waste management strategies.
• In Puerto Princesa City, USAID is professionalizing informal waste collection to improve safety, livelihoods, and the environmental contributions of local waste collectors, now known as “Eco Warriors.”

Program Grantees

• Catholic Relief Services (CRS) partnered with the program in 2021 to build local (barangay and city) government and private sector capacity for effective solid waste management through trainings covering SWM policy, strategies, waste analysis and characterization studies, and solid waste planning–while supporting communities in the adoption of more sustainable waste management and reduce, reuse, and recycle (the 3Rs) practices.
• Communities Organized for Resource Allocation (CORA) is establishing a new “Circular Center” located within an existing city material recovery facility that is currently limited in processing large volumes of recyclable materials. CORA is also piloting a Circular Center model to capture and give new life to plastics and other waste gathered from regular beach clean-ups, as well as from local households and businesses, as a model that can be adopted by and scaled to other cities.
• EcoWaste Coalition (EWC) supports the program’s Women in Waste’s Economic Empowerment Activity to empower women both at the lowest rungs of the SWM value chain and those working in upcycling by providing training in business, gender and personal empowerment skills, access to financing to start or expand SWM/3R business, and continued mentoring and coaching.
• Green Antz is addressing plastic pollution by improving the collection, segregation, sorting and recycling systems at the barangay level. The project is building an integrated waste management system through the establishment of a community EcoHub, capable of processing organics and single use plastics to turn them into usable products and managed by a team of employed community facility and collection staff.
• Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) is piloting its Aling Tindera Network model to address plastic waste in the City of Manila. The project is establishing ten Aling Tindera stations by engaging women micro-entrepreneurs who own sari sari stores–small, home-based convenience stores. The sari saris serve as community collection points for plastic waste where community members can bring and sell their plastic in exchange for cash. Sari sari stores are fully equipped with container vans, scales, and balers to condense the plastic–preparing it for PCXs offtake partners who will recycle and transform the plastic waste. Learn more.
• Project Zacchaeus (PZC) is working with sixty waste collectors from the community of Barangay Bancao-Bancao, which has over the last years provided critical waste management services for the area with little resources and representation. Through USAID’s grant, Project Eco-Kolek is transforming thes waste collectors into “Eco Warriors” through training  on proper waste management, health and safety, and–most of all– leadership skills that can empower the waste collectors and will emphasize their important role in the community. Learn more about the Eco-Warriors.
• WWF-Philippines is establishing a barangay waste management system in Batangas City that is participatory and value-driven, as well as supporting the development of local policies and regulations that are inclusive of the voice and needs of the community, empowering youth to participate in solid waste management, and enabling members of the informal waste sector to access improved livelihood opportunities.

Activities and Impacts

In the Philippines, program impacts (to date) include:

• Over 68 tons of plastic and other low-value waste secured from leaking into the environment through recovery efforts that diverted material from landfills, while supporting local livelihoods and building circular economies.
• Over 625 individuals trained from local government, informal waste sector, and local organizations to build local capacity for solid waste management planning and programs.
• Partnerships formed with local government units; private sector partners, including Nestle Philippines and the Coca-Cola Foundation; and groups including the Metro Manila Development Authority and World Bank to strengthen the Philippines’  local waste systems and build resiliency. 
• Over $1.3 million in grant funding awarded to local partners to implement effective, locally-led solutions.

Women in Waste’s Economic Empowerment Activity

In the Philippines, the program’s Women in Waste’s Economic Empowerment (WWEE) Activity works to empower women at the lowest rungs of the solid waste and recycling sectors to establish or expand their waste livelihoods and businesses. Learn more.

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