Plastic-waste-to-cash Program launched in Negros Occidental Province

Through a grant from the GIZ Project “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle to Protect the Marine Environment and Coral Reefs (3RproMar),” the Friends of Hope (HOPE), an impact organization that invests 100% of its profits into educational, agricultural, and environmental programs in the Philippines, partnered with the cities of Bago and Talisay in Negros to support their solid waste management efforts through the” Aling Tindera” (AT) Program. “Aling Tindera” is the Tagalog word for female shop keeper or vendor.

The AT Program is the first waste management program in the Philippines to assign a financial value to plastics, especially soft plastics, which can be collected and sold into the circular economy. Inspired by the “sari-sari” store culture, the Program empowers women micro-entrepreneurs, including “sari-sari” store owners and street sweepers, to manage 20-foot container vans that serve as collection points for plastic waste and balers that will compress collected plastic. Community members can then bring and sell their plastic waste to the closest AT stores, creating a unique community-based waste-to-cash system that will eventually lead to a long-term behavioural change around the treatment of plastics.

Upon collection, HOPE then processes the plastics through their pre-vetted processing partners such as the Plastic Credit Exchange - a company that offers a full-service plastic offset platform. The AT model is financially supported through plastic credits, where one metric ton of plastic is equal to one plastic credit that businesses can purchase to offset the plastics they cannot eliminate from their value chains. 

On 18 June, Bago City launched two AT sites as part of their community-based waste program for the observance of Environment Month. The launch was graced by Vice Mayor Ramon Torres and attended by Dr. Johannes Paul, Rhodora Sumaray, Terence Paul Dacles and Lyn Mae Servano (3RproMar), together with Marvin Fernandez, Mia Azurin and Alfie Nalagon (HOPE), and representatives from the local DENR sub offices.

Another AT station was launched on the same day in Talisay City, which already has two Ats. Partners 3RproMar and HOPE plan to expand more site in both cities in the coming months especially in Metro Bacolod areas. These ATs also aim to create additional green jobs especially in the informal sectors, which will manage the waste collection stations, and the community members who will sell their plastic waste to the collection stations.