Manila: Officials in a Metro Manila suburb agreed to work together with Nestlé to address plastics pollution.
Mayor Rexlon Gatchalian, Valenzuela City’s chief executive, said they are now working with Nestlé Philippines to address the issue.
Plastic wastes contribute a large part in problems in waste management in the city of 616,338 residents but it cannot impose a total ban on such non-biodegradable materials says Gatchalian.
“A big chunk of the industry in Valenzuela is actually plastic manufacturers. Banning plastics could result in thousands of jobs lost, and taxes and revenues lost. It’s not about banning plastics but recycling and repurposing of plastics,” he said during the recent launching of the ‘May BALIK! Sa PLASTIK!’, movement (waste redemption scheme).
Located downstream of the northern Metro Manila suburb of Quezon City, Valenzuela City perennially suffers from flooding — especially during the wet season. This is worsened by the fact that the Philippines runs on a virtual “sachet” economy where consumer items such as instant coffee, sugar and cooking oil are packaged in plastic packets.
Nestlé Philippines Chairman and CEO Kais Marzouki said his firm and Valenzuala City have come up with an approach to address the issue in the city.
“Nestlé Philippines and the city government of Valenzuela signed a memorandum of understanding for a citywide [plastic] collection programme,” Marzouki said.
Under the scheme street sweepers and schoolchildren would be given Nestlé products and school supplies for turning in waste materials in their villages and schools.
“There is a need to accelerate action on the issue on plastic. For Nestlé, this means addressing post-consumer wastes that would otherwise go to landfills and leak into waterways and oceans,” Marzouki says.
Marzouki said Nestlé’s aims to replicate the Valenzuela experiment in other parts of the country.
Environmentalist groups said Nestlé-branded packaging trash accounts for 15 per cent of the total branded waste.
