Philippines

“Every Morning, I Teach My Neighbors”

Like many urban areas in the Philippines, Navotas City ─a large coastal city within Metro Manila─ struggles to adequately manage its high volumes of solid waste. The city is known as the ‘fishing capital’ of the Philippines and one of the largest fishing ports in Asia, making plastic accumulation particularly… Read More

MWRP: Sharing Zero Waste Model Across Southeast Asia – From Philippines to Vietnam and Indonesia

According to the Government of Indonesia’s Ministry of Environment and Forestry, a significant percentage of solid waste in Indonesia is unmanaged. Only 25% of solid waste is collected by centralized service providers, but this waste is not segregated and therefore is transported as mixed waste to landfills. In Vietnam, a rapid rise in tourism in Cam Thanh commune in Hoi An and the Cham Islands has led to mounting solid waste management challenges that also require more effective handling of large and growing quantities of waste. Read More

MWPR Philippines: Introducing Zero Waste to Batangas City

Batangas City manages a centralized waste collection system subcontracted with a private company, the Metrowaste Solid Waste Management Corporation (Metrowaste), which operates daily waste collection services for biodegradable, non-biodegradable, and residual wastes. While Metrowaste covers most parts of the city, many households reside too far from the truck collection routes and therefore have no access to solid waste management (SWM) services. This situation results in illegal dumping and trash burning. Read More

MWRP Philippines: Waste to Wages: Changing the Narrative

Solid waste management is a challenge in the Philippines, a rapidly growing developing country in Southeast Asia comprised of over 7,000 islands. With increasing amounts of waste and not enough sanitary landfills, as much as 750,000 metric tons of discarded plastic finds its way into the ocean annually.1 This environmental crisis also represents a missed opportunity for poor neighborhoods in coastal cities where the value of that waste could be captured, generating much-needed income. Read More

MWRP Philippines: Community and Market-Based Solid Waste Management Solutions

Although the Philippines has passed legislation and created incentives at the national level for comprehensive solid waste management (SWM), supervision and rules enforcement are still weak at the subnational level, leading to mismanaged plastics entering the ocean. Currently less than a quarter of Metro Manila’s barangays1 effectively implement a SWM system. Read More