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Friday, March 29, 2024

Fruit company wants Filipinos to stop polluting Pacific Ocean

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A massive island of plastics is forming in the Pacific Ocean, and the Philippines is pinpointed as the third biggest culprit in dumping trash to the world’s largest body of water.

“If you look at the southern Pacific Ocean, there is a massive, almost like a floating island of plastic trash.  The Philippines ranks number three in contribution to plastic waste in the ocean in the world.  Number one is China, number two is Indonesia and number three is the Philippines,” said Dole Asia vice president for marketing and innovations Ashvin Subramanyan.

Subramanyan said this could be due to the fact that the Philippines has the second longest coastline in Asia after Indonesia, and there is a need to improve waste segregation and recycling in the country.

Ocean Conservancy, a US environmental non-profit group, reported in 2015 that the majority of plastic waste enters the Pacific Ocean from a small geographic area, and that “over half comes from just five rapidly growing economies—China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.”

Sunshine Heroes. From left: Dole Asean cluster general manager Noel Casanova, National Solid Waste Management Commission executive director Eligio Ildefonso, Dole Asia vice president for marketing and innovations Ashvin Subramanyan and Gone Adventurin’ founder and chief executive Ashwin Subramaniam

Ocean Conservancy said the rising economic power of these countries had also generated exploding demand for consumer products that had not yet been met with a commensurate waste-management infrastructure.

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The study found that of the 275 million metric tons of plastic waste that coastal countries produced in 2010, between 4.8 and 12.7 million MT leaked to the ocean.

China was listed as the top contributor, with 1.32 million MT to 3.53 million MT going into the sea, followed by Indonesia with 480,000 MT to 1.29 million MT and the Philippines with 280,000 MT to 750,000 MT of plastic waste.  

While China was the biggest producer of plastic waste with 50 million MT of plastic waste per year, compared to the Philippines’ 2.7 million MT, waste in China was spread over a much greater geographic area, resulting in a much lower density of waste. 

Metro Manila in the Philippines generates roughly 560,000 metric tons of plastic waste each year within an area of 620 square kilometers, translating into a plastic waste density of 900 metric tons per square kilometer.

In its estimate, Ocean Conservatory said of the 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste produced by the Philippines, about half a million metric tons leaked to the sea.

An executive of Dole,  a multinational fruit producer which has a 17,000-hectare plantation in South Cotabato province, said companies were contributing to the problem.

“Disposable container has created issues for the environment. Because of the nature of business of Dole, we know that we also contribute.  That is why we have decided to put emphasis on putting training, wisdom among the students,” said Dole Asean cluster general manager Noel Casanova.

Subramanyan agreed, saying: “We have business in the Philippines, so we can do something about it.  So let us do something about it.”

Dole Philippines teamed up with Gone Adventurin’ and Mother Earth Foundation to launch the Sunshine Heroes campaign—a CSR and sustainability drive centered on engaging the schoolchildren and instilling within them the passion to embrace sustainability, through recycling, as a lifestyle and a progressive movement.

“We need to teach kids that all the trash they see laying around our streets and clogging our waterways is because we need more recycling and less trash,” said Subramanyam.

Data showed the Philippines was producing around 40,000 tons of garbage every day or about 14.6 million tons a year. Experts said that at least 70 percent of these wastes were generated by households, while about 75 percent could actually be recycled.

To encourage the youth to recycle materials, the Sunshine Heroes campaign is putting up material recovery facilities in five public schools in Malabon and Quezon City where students will be requested to bring household recyclable wastes to the facility. 

The trash will then be sold to local recyclers once it reaches a certain amount. Money generated from this program will go directly to the school to help fund other school activities.  The pilot schools are Potrero Elementary School, Potrero National High School, Masambong Elementary School, Sergio Osmeña Sr. High School and Holy Spirit Elementary School. 

“We chose to engage the youth because of their role in helping change mindsets about recycling and proper waste management,” said Subramanyam. 

“Down the road, we hope that other schools will be able to replicate this sustainability model. Making this model a staple in every school can make a lasting impact in terms of advocating for proper waste management nationwide,” said Subramanyam. 

National Solid Waste Management Commission executive director Eligio Ildefonso said the industries and the private sector have crucial roles to play in waste management. “The order of the Supreme Court is to clean up Manila Bay to restore it to former status where everyone can swim,” he said.

“We want to see more companies as partners of the government,” said Ildefonso.

Gone Adventurin’ founder and chief executive Ashwin Subramaniam said urban waste in the Philippines was expected to rise significantly in the coming years.  “The World Bank has forecasted that urban waste in the Philippines will increase 165 percent by 2025 from 2012,” he said.

He said teaching students to recycle materials is a good start.  “Our whole future depends on the next generation or two,” said  Subramaniam.

“Each household has 4.4 members and if you can influence one student or one child in the family, you have 3.4 other members of the family who can start segregating and recycling,” he said.

Subramanyan, the Dole executive, said aside from the fruit company, everybody should take part in recycling of materials.  “We all live in this planet.  We owe it to ourselves to protect it,”  he said.

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