The Department of Environment and Natural Resources seeks to employ waste pickers from the informal sector and integrate them into an expanded producer responsibility (EPR) system for plastic packaging waste.
To ensure that no one is left behind as the country transitions toward a circular economy, DENR Secretary Antonia Loyzaga cited the need for a more holistic integration of the informal sector to the EPR system.
The informal waste sector in the Philippines include waste pickers at dumps and communal waste collection points.
The DENR chief cited the significant role of the sector in waste collection and management, and the potential contribution it could bring being the “backbone of the currently limited collection services and partly of recycling” in the country.
“Collection and sorting facilities from the informal sector may be transformed into formal activities and establishments. These can be duly registered and supported by the EPR system,” she said.
“The informal sector can also be integrated as business partners, such as non-government organization-supported microenterprises, franchises of formal waste management companies, operating local collection centers, and forming cooperatives and collectives. This social inclusion can be improved to develop alternative livelihoods and diversified livelihoods for our informal community,” she added.
The EPR Act of 2022 or Republic Act 11898 serves as the environmental policy approach and practice that requires producers to be environmentally responsible throughout the life cycle of a product, especially its post-consumer or end-of-life stage.