'Waste market'

There’s cash in trash, as a popular slogan says. But really, there’s now a formal “waste market” where they trade discarded plastic bags and other used plastic packages and containers of various consumer products for cash, or in kind — like a kilo of rice.

From the many polystyrene products that we use everyday, food packaging products such as Styrofoam and plastic bags are the most controversial. For rabid pro-environment advocates, the use of these particular plastic packages should be banned and replaced with more environment-friendly materials like paper bags.

But don’t these bags and packages made of paper come from trees as basic raw material? So how can the use of paper bags be more environment-friendly? And yet, the use of plastic bags (or plastic packages) is painted as detrimental to the environment.

These plastic bags, containers and packages made of plastic that would otherwise be trashed could, in fact, be sold for recycling into other commercial products. This is the message the local plastic industry wants to put across, especially to rabidly pro-environment advocates pushing for a ban on the use of plastic bags and wrappers.

This is obviously to counter misinformation being fed to the public mind about how plastic bags and other plastic containers and packages only end up in dumpsites, clog waterways, and thus, harm the environment. Such wrong perception — deliberately or not — is what the Philippine Plastic Industry Association (PPIA) now trying to correct through active education and information campaign.

In a dialogue with Philippine STAR editors, PPIA president Peter Quintana disclosed their group has been advocating an intensified recovery and recycling policy for these plastic bags, packages and container products as required in our country’s law on the proper disposal of waste and garbage. This is in accordance with Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000. RA 9003 spells out clear provisions on the collection and segregation as well as recycling of household garbage and industrial wastes.

These plastic packages produced by the PPIA members have been receiving bad press as an environmental hazard because oftentimes, these end up in creeks and other waterways. It has been blamed for the major floods in Metro Manila caused by the most recent super storms “Ondoy” and “Pedring.”

The PPIA insists plastic bags are not the culprit, but people’s improper waste disposal behavior. The original sin is people’s behavior. Therein lies the solution as well, Quintana pointed out.

Part of the PPIA’s advocacy, he cited, is to influence people’s waste disposal habits. It believes its campaign to collect or recover plastic from consumers for recycling is a good way to start a new habit that it hopes will eventually become ingrained. 

By organizing and supporting regular waste market fairs or recycler’s bazaars, they hope to foster a recycling habit within the community, which offers a new income stream for housewives and other members of the household.

It is encouraging the public to turn in used plastic products for recycling. These include plastic grocery bags (preferably clean), PET bottles or those used for water and beverages, shampoo containers and other discards.

The recovery activity is known in different names by different groups; there’s cash for scrap, trash to crafts, trash to cash. But it carries the same message — do not throw away waste but exchange it for cash or goods.

The PPIA and the Ayala malls have an ongoing plastic bag recovery program. Plastic that is collected is made into bags and other craft by the Invisible Sisters, a social enterprise project supported by the Ayala Foundation. The industry has also involved SM outlets in the plastic recovery programs. The SM chain of malls holds every month in their respective outlets such trading of used plastics.

Yesterday, the PPIA met with the representatives from Ortigas to organize the 3rd Cash for Scrap fair (A Recycler’s Bazaar) scheduled this June at the Greenhills shopping center in San Juan City.

Likewise, the group has been coordinating with officials of local government units (LGUs) in undertaking organized collection of plastic wastes from households and commercial centers and transform them into “waste markets” as livelihood and enterprise projects for people in their communities.

Unknown to many, the PPIA is also currently working with non-government organizations (NGOs), Catholic church leaders, big mall owners and youth groups to implement an active education and information campaign on plastics recovery program.

On a smaller scale, as it is just in its initial stage, the group is also working with the Archdiocese of Manila on a plastic exchange program involving communities in Manila, San Juan, and Quezon City. They are also working with local officials in other areas like Dagupan in Pangasinan.

All this time recycling of garbage is nothing new. At home and in school, we try to stash these plastic packages for future use, if not collected for recycling. Now there is a growing market for plastic bags and other plastic-made products considered by others as “waste” but could be a veritable source of livelihood for the enterprising.

As I gathered, these waste markets in Metro Manila buy “por kilo” these plastic bags, Styrofoam, plastic bottles for soft drinks, plastic containers of shampoo and other products sold in plastic packages. Prices range from P3 up to P15 per kilo. You get a good price if these plastic bags and other containers and packages are dry and clean.     

Now I know why my yaya diligently collects all these plastic bags and other plastic containers at home.

This emerging waste market in Metro Manila and a few cities around the country are catching on even among the higher income bracket. Quintana noted some of these well-off people drive their SUVs to the waste market to also trade in their recyclables.

Seriously, a waste market for plastics could yet stir up the underground economy.