The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has taken notice of Quezon City’s ban on single-use plastics to curb pollution and declog the city’s waterways.
The UNEP, the United Nations’ leading global authority on the environment, noted the local government’s success in reducing plastic pollution and perennial flooding during the rainy season.
Mayor Josefina “Joy” Belmonte has promoted refill stations for daily essentials and launched a program offering residents cash for their garbage.
Belmonte. as the city’s first elected female leader, has championed inclusive governance, social equity and environmental sustainability.
The UNEP in 2023 named Belmonte a Champion of the Earth. The accolade, the UN’s highest environmental honor, acknowledged her effort to tackle plastic pollution, one of the city’s–and the planet’s–gravest environmental threats.
With the world facing a surge in plastic pollution, the UNEP recently sat down with Belmonte to discuss what lies behind her city’s success and what its plans are for the future.
Belmonte recalled that three days of continuous rains in the past flooded much of Quezon City.
She told the UNEP that much of the city was blanketed in plastic when the rain stopped and the floodwaters started to subside—a sight that she has not forgotten.
“The floods stayed for several days because our drainage systems were blocked by plastic pollution. Plastic pollution was responsible for the suffering our people endured during that time,” said Belmonte.
“So, when I became vice mayor and then mayor, I began making ordinances on single-use plastics,” she said.
Belmonte also credited the ban on single-use plastics and single-use packaging material as effective in reducing plastic waste pollution in the dining and hospitality business.
UNEP News
The Trash to Cashback program, meanwhile, allows people to exchange recyclable goods and plastics for environmental points that they can redeem for commodities, like rice, milk and sugar.
Belmonte said the program as of January 2025 has generated about 500,000 kilograms of recyclable goods and materials, especially plastic, that helped lower socioeconomic brackets fulfill their basic needs.
“We also have a refilling program, which [incentivizes] people and businesses to refill their basic household products like fabric softener, detergent and dishwashing liquid at filling stations. This saves time and money as compared to buying [plastic] sachets wholesale,” she said.
Quezon City, in addition, introduced the Green Awards for big companies as well as organizations, schools, hospitals, barangays and youth councils.
“The awards are a testament to an institution’s willingness to be warriors for climate and environmental action. We found that these awards caused big companies to start implementing their own sustainable practices,” Belmonte said.
Quezon City, being the city with the largest population, has been a catalyst for change that other organizations emulate.
Belmonte said Quezon City was the first highly-urbanized city to do urban farming, which the Department of Interior and Local Government espoused and encouraged in other cities.
“We also change behavior through education. We have managed to get plastic- and climate-related topics incorporated into the curricula of schools under our jurisdiction by developing accessible and inclusive climate action books,” the mayor said. UNEP News
