Philippine Business Magazine: Volume 13 No. 9 - Corporate Citizenship

Waste Not, Want Not

The Philippine Business for the Environment spearheads the business sector’s recycling initiatives

By Delfin E. Trinidad

The average Filipino generates an estimated half a kilo of garbage everyday. On a broader scale, the Asian Development Bank reported in 2004 that Metro Manila produces some 6,700 metric tons of waste daily. Unfortunately, only 35%, at most, of Metro Manila’s recyclable and reusable wastes are actually recycled. Clearly, the potential for recycling is great, but much needs to be done in informing the public on how to go about it.

Corporate Initiatives

Recycling has long been practiced by the business sector, either through individual corporate undertakings or as a consolidated group effort. Through the Philippine Business for the Environment (PBE), the business sector has been promoting the practice of recycling through the Industrial Waste Exchange Program (IWEP). The program aims to tackle the problem of poor industrial waste disposal systems and their destructive environmental impact.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources originally initiated the IWEP in 1988. However, the environment department’s failure to assure confidentiality in the declaration of waste materials discouraged firms from joining the program. As a result, the floundering project was turned over to PBE in 1994.

Upon taking on the project, PBE addressed the issue of confidentiality. PBE defined its role in the program as solely to serve as the middleman or clearinghouse for companies looking to buy, sell, trade, and recycle their by-product materials or waste. As it designed the program, firms intending to sell waste, the so-called “waste generators,” would be able to locate waste buyers and recyclers through the help of a database. To protect the identity of the firm, PBE implemented a referral system wherein contact information is divulged only when there is permission from the waste-generating entity. PBE’s role ends here and succeeding transactions are done directly between the “waste generator” and the waste buyer or recycler until both reach an agreement. Successful exchanges are featured in PBE’s website and its quarterly publication, the Business and Environment magazine.

Currently, some 130 firms generating 1,200 kinds of waste materials are registered in the database. The items include glass cullets, used drums, used coolant, solder waste, used oil, scrap fabric, sawdust, and mold runner plastic wastes. Waste generators derive benefit from the exchange in the form of income from sold waste and savings on disposal cost. Waste buyers, on the other hand, are assured of a reliable and cheap source of raw material. Most importantly, the activity helps ease the strain on municipal garbage collection systems.

Recycling for Households

Aside from its corporate initiatives, PBE also encourages recycling among households through two main activities: recyclables collection events and a waste trading market. Usually, the recyclables collection events are held as part of the annual Earth Day activities in April. In June 2006, PBE and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources also conducted a nationwide recyclables collection event.

Meanwhile, the waste trading market provides the general public a venue for disposing their recyclable waste on a regular basis. The waste exchange is held every first Friday of the month at the Goldcrest parking area in Ayala Center, Makati, and every third Friday at the parking area in Alabang Town Center. Both markets operate on these days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The market categorizes the waste materials brought in as either traditional or nontraditional. Traditional waste covers such recyclable items as newspapers, paper cartons, aluminum and tin cans, glass bottles, and plastic bottles. Nontraditional wastes are those that require special handling, such as electronic junk and appliances, used cellphones and cellphone batteries, used ink and toner cartridges, used car batteries and used oil, and styrofoam. Most of these wastes can be exchanged for either money or for another item. For example, scrap paper can be traded for bathroom tissue, table napkins, notebooks, or pencils. Used ink can be exchanged for remanufactured ink, while plastic bottles can be traded for plastic hangers, basins, and even small plastic chairs for children.

PBE’s work complements that of the Philippine Earth Day Network and the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines. The success of its projects can be attributed to the active participation and cooperation of both the private sector and the local city governments involved. Through their combined efforts, PBE hopes to continue making big strides in making recycling and environmental protection and conservation a part of the corporate and public mindset.