The Philippines is on track to reach its target of recovering and diverting 80 percent of plastic packaging by 2028.
Department of Environment of Natural Resources Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo Loyzaga last week expressed confidence the Philippines would hit the target after businesses managed to divert 20 percent of plastics waste in the first year of implementing the Expanded Producers’ Responsibility (EPR) Act.
The DENR-Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) reported 624,547 tons of unaudited footprint for plastics in 2023, with the target of 20 percent, or 124,986 tons of plastic packaging, diverted. The DENR reported the gains during the observance of World Environment Day and Philippine Environment Month on June 5.
Loyzaga credited private enterprises for achieving significant strides toward the “shared goal of building a circular economy where waste is minimized, resources are protected, and the delicate balance of our planet is restored.”
Businesses achieved the 20 percent target through waste collection and diversion, including recovery, transportation and cleanup efforts in coastal and public areas, said Loyzaga.
The DENR disclosed the early gains less than two years since the enabling law, Republic Act 11898 or the EPR Act, came into force in 2022.
Circular economy refers to the practice of reducing, reusing and recycling, a 1970s concept of 3Rs that was modified and improvised in 2013 through a report entitled Towards the Circular Economy: Economic and Business Rationale for an Accelerated Transition and commissioned by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
The EPR law requires businesses to conduct proper waste management of plastic packaging products such as sachets, rigid plastic packaging products, plastic bags and polystyrene.
The EMB reported a 37-percent increase in the number of businesses that registered under the EPR program, from 667 in 2023 to 917 companies as of May 6, 2024.
Under the EPR Act, the targets for the recovery of plastic product footprint are: 2023, 20 percent; 2024, 40 percent; 2025, 50 percent; 2026, 60 percent; 2027, 70 percent; and 2028, 80 percent.
The DENR has issued Administrative Order (DAO) 2024-04 promulgating the interim guidelines on the compliance audit reporting for legally bound enterprises under the EPR law.
The DAO aims to help EPR-registered obliged enterprises, collectives and producer responsibility organizations and their respective independent third-party auditors with the annual EPR Compliance Audit Report (ECAR). It provides temporary guidance and templates for developing the ECAR, constituting the EPR Compliance and Audit reports.
The deadline for the submission of the ECARs to the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) is on June 30, or the first working day immediately after that.
“The urgency of our mission is underscored by the growing impacts of linear consumption patterns as evidenced by the staggering volume of waste generated daily in our country,” said Loyzaga. DENR News
Moving away from the linear economy model of take-make-dispose, EPR is crucial in advancing a circular economy. It enhances the efficient use of materials and redirects processes from the end of the supply chain back to the beginning.
“This supports the country’s achievement of its nationally determined contribution as mentioned by the Climate Change Commission… with regard to our waste wherein the circular economy and sustainable consumption and production have been identified as key mitigation measures against climate change. It also supports our sustainable development goals on climate action, on the protection of life on land and under sea, zero hunger, water and establishing sustainable cities as well as regards our poverty issues,” said Loyzaga.
“We have set very ambitious goals for reducing waste and this requires transformative, system-wide actions, and large-scale implementations,” she added. DENR News