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Sustainability initiative recovers a whopping 3.2M pieces of plastic sachets, upcycles into chairs and dividers


A whopping 3.2M plastic waste and more than 870,000 plastic bottles that would've choked our oceans further have been recovered by the Pag-Asa sa Basura program in a year-long effort over the school year 2019-2020.

A sustainability initiative between World Vision and P&G Philippines and with a strong support from the Department of Education, Pag-Asa sa Basura established links between schools and their respective materials recovery facilities (MRF) and created a system of recovery and collection, segregation, recycling, and upcycling efforts.

And what a successful system too: From the collected plastic waste, the initiative produced more than 1,000 upcycled plastic school chairs, which was donated to 26 participating schools in Malabon and Quezon City.

The chairs are now being used by teachers and parents during the pick-up and submission of modules as schools transition to blended learning.

Apart from plastic waste recovery and recycling, the Pag-Asa sa Basura program also includes educating students, teachers, and parents on the fundamentals of proper solid waste management — an often overlooked factor in mitigating the worsening problem of plastic waste.

In 2017, the Philippines was considered the world's 3rd top producer of plastic waste. The following year, the United Nations released a report that identified the Philippines as one of five countries that produce about half of all of the plastic waste that ends up in the oceans.

In 2019, the non-government agency GAIA produced a report that said "almost 48 million shopping bags are used throughout the Philippines every day, adding up to more than 17 billion a year.

So even if coastal cleanups, and collection and recovery programs like Pag-Asa sa Basura are hardly enough to address the problem, it is a most welcome start.

The Pag-Asa sa Basura program is based on the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003), a landmark legislation, which aims to protect the environment through proper solid waste management practices. — LA, GMA News 

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