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The MSMEs and Associations for Social Enterprise Development, led by JunkNot! and ATBP Co., hosted Usapang Plastik Tayo! on April 23, 2024, at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). The forum opened up a purposeful dialogue on plastic reduction, waste management solutions, and the intertwined roles of producers, consumers, and grassroots communities in the fight against plastic pollution. It also brought to the forefront the opportunities that MSMEs and social enterprises can capitalize on under the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law. 

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IDr. Wilhelmina “Willie” Garcia, founder of social enterprise JunkNot!, was joined by fellow panelists Ma. Cristina “Ting” Rillo-Cabalza of Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Angeles “Gidget” Velez and Rene Guarin of Plastic Bank, and Anna Maria Gonzales of Ayala Land, Inc. in a conversation on how we can effectively reduce, reuse, recycle and recover plastic waste. The forum was attended by circular economy advocates and stakeholders representing people’s associations, MSMEs, NGOs, the academe, corporations and the public sector. The strong show of support across sectors highlighted the significance of collective action and taking a needs-based approach toward sustainable waste management solutions. 

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The problem with plastics and what the EPR means. According to the World Bank’s Market Study for the Philippines: Plastics Circularity Opportunities and Barriers, the Philippines is the third-largest contributor to plastic leakage into the oceans, accounting for around 750,000 metric tons of mismanaged plastic entering oceans each year. The alarming impact on coastal communities and marine ecosystems has driven businesses, government and civil society to recognize the urgency of adopting a circular approach to production and consumption. 

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The Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022, which lapsed into law in July 2022, now holds companies accountable for their plastic footprint. The EPR law requires companies to neutralize their plastic footprint, with increased responsibility to do so year on year. 

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“The EPR involves the entire ecosystem. There’s a big market requiring plastic to be recovered and recycled. Companies need plastic credits to comply with the EPR, and they don’t have the capacity to collect on their own. They need to work with processors, and processors need to work with communities and LGUs,” says Rene Guarin, Plastic Bank’s Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific. 

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According to current data, Guarin explained, there will come a point when our collection capacity will no longer be enough to meet EPR compliance requirements, so there are a lot of opportunities in both collection and processing. 

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Empowering communities and small businesses through sustainable waste management. Green designer Willie Garcia, who makes furniture and functional pieces from upcycled plastic waste, shared how she has leveraged the EPR mandate for her social enterprise. JunkNot! engages clients and partner corporations through its Trash Innovation in Exchange for UPcycling (TIE-UP) Program, where clients can offload their plastic waste and have custom-made furniture created by the JunkNot! team. Apart from offering a discounted rate on these custom pieces, Garcia also issues impact certificates, which companies can use in the audit of their plastic waste. She likewise encourages other social enterprises and MSMEs to seize opportunities brought about by the EPR law and incorporate waste management initiatives into their business models. 

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Guests also experienced Garcia’s design philosophy firsthand, with the forum being set within her solo exhibit, Tao + y (bakit) = TA-y-O, at the NCCA Gallery. Featuring Garcia’s latest collection of upcycled furniture and functional pieces, the exhibit showed how trash can be transformed into art and how creative solutions can be found to fight plastic pollution. JunkNot! works with partner communities to collect and upcycle plastic, thereby providing livelihood to its partners while promoting sustainable waste management and environmental stewardship. 

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Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc. (CCFPI) is scaling up community recycling solutions, and supporting programs for the well-being of the informal waste sector. “May pera sa basura. It’s been proven, even with the smallest of grants. We gave a small amount of capital to a waste picker in Tanay. Ngayon, napalago niya ang negosyo niya at truck-truck na ang collection niya. It’s very inspiring. And there are many stories like this. So, we’re working with waste workers in uplifting their lives. We owe a lot to the waste workers.”

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There’s also an opportunity in making the barangay’s Materials Recovery Facilities efficient. Kailangan i-connect and mga recyclers at communities. Or if there’s no capital to do recycling, at least with junk shops or aggregator businesses. Kasi ‘yun yung mga nakakatulong sa mga communities. And then, when we’re at scale, we can talk about bringing them all into a hub and then bringing them to the recycling facilities,” shares Ting Cabalza, Program and Finance Manager of CCFPI. 

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Social enterprise Plastic Bank helps corporate partners achieve EPR compliance, while formalizing the informal waste sector. Through their partnerships with waste collectors and junk shops, Plastic Bank builds ethical collection communities. They enable the informal waste sector to become entrepreneurs themselves by making plastic collection a professional endeavor. Members are trained to conduct efficient collection in households, communities, and Materials Recovery Facilities. The collected plastic is then turned into flakes or pellets and reused as feedstock for corporations, fueling a circular economy for plastic. Their recycling process is powered by their proprietary blockchain platform, which enables traceable collection, secures income, and verifies reporting. 

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“We’ve already prevented the equivalent of over 6 billion bottles from polluting the ocean. And that’s really driven by embracing and improving the lives of our collection members by connecting them to collection branches where they can exchange plastic for money through our blockchain technology. The money they get, they can use it for themselves or their families, empowering them to pave a path out of poverty. Or they can use it for their communities, to fund their programs,” says Gidget Velez, Chief Supply and Countries Officer of Plastic Bank. 

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Anna Maria Gonzales, Ayala Land’s Head of Sustainability, shared her perspective from a conglomerate’s standpoint. For Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI), sustainability is a priority and part of its strategy. ALI, in collaboration with its partners, continuously looks for ways to turn waste into resources instead of something to discard and to undertake circularity at industrial scale. 

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Gonzales’ team is responsible not just for monitoring and reporting ALI’s energy consumption and waste data, among other statistics, but also for making sure that they use this data to address the pain points of the company and the communities in which they operate. 

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“Using the data we collect, our sustainability unit comes up with programs and/or interventions that will address our businesses’ requirements for environmental impact reduction or problems that are also aligned with the problems of society,” says Gonzales. She emphasized that there are opportunities for MSMEs to work with ALI and that the competitive advantage would be in being able to provide products and services at an industrial level or to their supply chain.  Sharing advice for entrepreneurs looking to scale their businesses, she stressed the importance of identifying an existing pain point and how they could solve this problem for their prospective customers. 

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Engaging a multi-sector approach for sustainable solutions. Pinky Poe, Chairperson of the MSMEs and Associations for Social Enterprise Development and co-founding partner of social enterprise ATBP Co., built on the panelists’ sharing of their initiatives. She highlighted the potential business opportunities for MSMEs under the EPR and the unique roles of each sector in enabling community-driven solutions. Poe thanked Plastic Bank, Coca-Cola Foundation, Ayala Land, and JunkNot! for opening up the discourse across sectors, with the aim of co-creating programs to support MSMEs, particularly social enterprises, and the communities they work with. 

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Following the discourse, Rodmark Barriga, President of the Society for the Advancement of Professional Social Entrepreneurship (SAPSE) and the co-founder and CEO of the social enterprise Palamigan Co.™, facilitated a Q&A, which brought out the importance of investing in community organization and public awareness to achieve sustainable waste management solutions. 

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Before closing the forum, Barriga invited the group to join the Tatak SE community. On behalf of the SE Roadmap Council, he expressed the team’s hope that we can continue to hold spaces of discourse - where everyone can come to the table - and reach a point where conversations become transformational and solutions can be created for real impact. 

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Usapang Plastik Tayo! was made possible through the support of JunkNot!, ATBP Co., the National Commision for Culture and the Arts, Plastic Bank, Coca-Cola Foundation Philippines, Inc., Ayala Land, Inc., Villa Socorro Farm, D’WA Cacao and Coffee, Bayan Innovation Group, Bayan Famly of Foundations, SAPSE, and Tatak SE. 

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