The ghost of Payatas in Cebu

The landslide at the Binaliw landfill in Cebu echoes a tragedy many Filipinos hoped was buried in the past. Over two decades ago, the Payatas tragedy claimed hundreds of lives and shocked the nation. As images and reports continue to emerge from the ground in Cebu, the similarities hit a little too close. Official investigations into the site in previous years noted that Binaliw was operating less like a modern facility and more like an open dumpsite. This was not a natural disaster; it was a systemic failure, one that stretches back for decades.

The escalating waste crisis in the Philippines is a symptom of a broken system rooted in unmitigated waste generation, poor implementation of laws and lack of accountability. Communities suffer from negative impacts and injustices arising from pollution and increasing volumes of waste that the country’s waste management system simply cannot handle. People living near landfills are faced with unsafe waste management practices, leachate contaminating water sources, poor air quality and health problems.

The Payatas catastrophe sped up the passage of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003). Its main purpose was to enable waste reduction through mandated strategies primarily through source reduction, including the banning of non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging, as well as segregation at source that can enable diversion from landfills through composting and recycling.

Yet 25 years after its passage, nothing has been done to address the problem at source, to make things much more manageable or to protect Filipinos and our environment from devastating consequences of a waste crisis. Instead, the waste crisis has worsened. Poor implementation, a lack of enforcement and a refusal by both the government and corporations to address the crisis at its source have led us back to this familiar, deadly ground.

To understand the waste crisis and why it still plagues the country despite having a progressive law in place, we have to assess the landscape beyond waste management systems. Even the best-managed landfill and most advanced waste management systems are destined to fail if the volume of waste continues to explode. We are currently facing a crisis of overproduction, driven largely by corporations that have hooked Filipinos on single-use plastics, peddled disposable products and packaging and fueled the sachet economy.

Corporate dependence on single-use plastics (SUPs) and other disposables is the engine of our waste crisis. Businesses continue to fuel mass consumption through disposables, creating a mountain of residual waste that local governments are then expected to manage on the taxpayers’ dime. The reality is that waste management simply cannot keep up with the overproduction of plastic. When companies refuse to reduce plastic production and take responsibility for the lifecycle of their packaging and products, they pass the burden of dealing with the environmental and health consequences to the Filipino people. This is an undeniable injustice the government has turned a blind eye to.

We cannot live with the status quo. We need a systemic shift based on the Zero Waste Hierarchy, redesigning corporate practices and strengthening government regulations so that waste is designed out of the system entirely. This framework prioritizes prevention over disposal, and emphasizes keeping resources in circulation for future generations. The Philippine government, particularly the DENR as the lead agency for the National Solid Waste Management Commission, must fully and strictly implement RA 9003, enforce source segregation and fully implement reduction strategies – such as a ban on single-use plastics and a mandatory phaseout of other disposable products, which is already mandated under the law. The government should stop letting corporations off the hook at the expense of the Filipino people, and hold them accountable for their major role in the waste and plastic crises.

Currently, Filipino consumers are stuck with sachets and single-use plastics, because there are no large-scale, affordable alternatives. Corporations must be required to reduce their plastic production and adopt reuse systems that allow people to purchase what they need without the burden of generating waste. The Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Act, which was intended to reduce plastic pollution, fails to adequately address the plastic crisis due to its reliance on recovery targets and ineffective downstream measures. We need ambitious policies and political will to implement regulations. Our EPR framework should have mandatory reduction targets and require companies to begin a just transition to reuse and refill systems.

Fully implementing RA 9003, redesigning our systems to prioritize reduction and reuse is the only way to prevent the next Binaliw or Payatas. The government and corporations cannot wait for the next tragedy to act. Ending injustices and preventing future tragedies require corporate accountability, and action by government and businesses to implement systemic solutions designed to reduce waste and enable reuse.

*      *      *

Marian Ledesma is a zero waste campaigner at Greenpeace Philippines.