Japan offers $3-M grant for garbage workers

MANILA, Philippines - The Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) has offered a $3-million grant to improve the lives of some 6,000 informal garbage workers in the Philippines.

The fund will be administered by the World Bank, and carried out by the Solid Waste Management Association of the Philippines (SWMAP), a non-profit organization composed of solid waste management practitioners from local government units (LGUs), national government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the academe.

The fund will go to the Social Inclusion and Alternative Livelihoods for the Informal Waste Sector project, and implemented by SWMAP.

SWMAP executive vice president Grace Sapuay said in a statement that the project will help LGUs, communities, and the private sector improve their capability to manage solid waste problems in their respective areas through research, training, technical assistance, information exchange, and network building.

The project will provide support to informal garbage workers and itinerant waste buyers in five cities and municipalities, which are modernizing their solid waste management systems.

Support will also be provided to informal waste sector participants that are members of existing recycling cooperatives in Metro Manila.

Under the country’s Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or Republic Act 9003, LGUs are required to modernize their solid waste management practices and convert open dumps to sanitary landfills. These changes may affect the livelihood of garbage workers and itinerant waste buyers.

According to the World Bank, tens of thousands of people in the Philippines work informally collecting, segregating and selling wastes. These groups, referred to as the “informal waste sector,” earn a living either in dumps or collect waste from households.