The Philippines remains the third largest source of discarded waste that ends up in the ocean, according to Environment Undersecretary Jonas Leones during a speech at the R&D International Conference on connecting the dots on circular economy for sustainable development.
“Based on the World Bank data, the Philippines recycled around 27.8 percent of key plastics resins in 2019, and that 78 percent of the material value of plastics is lost to the Philippine economy each year,” Leones said.
He added that at present, resources are taken from nature to make products that are consumed and generate waste, which are incinerated or disposed of in dumping sites and landfills.
Leones said that managing raw materials, resources, and waste efficiently is crucial in building sustainable and livable cities and communities.
Being the third largest source of discarded waste in the ocean speaks volumes of how inefficient and wasteful Filipino society has become and provides a grim indictment of all the supposed “zero waste” initiatives of both the government and private sector.
Majority of that waste is plastic packaging, which is an issue that we have to face, being a society that has become highly dependent on plastic packaging, especially the inefficient sachets that end up clogging waterways and causing floods in urban areas before ultimately being discharged into the oceans where the almost indestructible nature of plastic allows Filipino-branded trash to curse the planet further.
Aside from our plastic problem is the terribly inefficient waste management systems at the LGU level, which have obviously failed to capture much of the waste that could have been recycled or reused, or properly disposed of in sanitary landfills. The sheer quantity of the waste we produce that ends up in the oceans is enough to consistently rank us among the world’s worst, is testament to our failure in waste management, or rather, management in general.*
