Environment Secretary Antonia Loyzaga is pushing for the integration of the informal waste sector into the expanded producer responsibility (EPR) system for plastic packaging waste to ensure that no one is left behind as the country transitions toward circular economy.

“A more holistic overall integration of the informal sector to the EPR system needs to be targeted. Economic incentives and social incentives may be established,” Loyzaga said in her remarks at the roundtable discussion entitled “Rethinking Plastics: EPR Paving the Way Towards Circularity” held in Quezon City last May 10.

The informal waste sector in the Philippines includes waste pickers in dumpsites and communal waste collection points.

Loyzaga underscored the significant role of the sector in waste collection and management, and the potential contribution they could bring being the “backbone of the currently limited collection services and partly of recycling” in the country.

“Collection and sorting facilities from the informal sector may be transformed into formal activities and establishments. These can be duly registered and supported by the EPR system,” Loyzaga pointed out.

She added: “The informal sector can also be integrated as business partners, such as NGO-supported microenterprises, franchises of formal waste management companies, operating local collection centers, and forming cooperatives and collectives. This social inclusion can be improved to develop alternative livelihoods and diversified livelihoods for our informal community.”

Loyzaga said the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has put focus on upcycling, envisioning that this will enable public and private investments in waste recovery, reuse, recycling as well as manufacturing and production using secondary raw materials.

Supporting the informal sector and establishing the right infrastructure were among the critical factors identified in order to accelerate the country’s transition to circular economy and implement a successful EPR policy.

During the roundtable discussion, DENR officials and private sector representatives discussed key challenges, solutions, and opportunities for government-industry collaboration for the effective enforcement of Republic Act 11898 or the EPR Act of 2022.

The EPR law serves as the environmental policy approach and practice that requires producers to be environmentally responsible throughout the life cycle of a product, especially its post-consumer or end-of-life stage.

It aims to address the mismanagement of plastic waste and uphold circularity through maximizing the material value of plastics, thereby, unlocking their full potential to help boost parts of the Philippine economy.

During the panel discussion, DENR Undersecretary for Finance, Information Systems and Climate Change Analiza Rebuelta-Teh—together with National Solid Waste Management Commission Vice Chair Crispian Lao, Nestlé Philippines Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Affairs Jose Uy III, and Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia Senior Advisor to the President on Environmental Issues, Regional Knowledge Centre for Marine Plastic Debris Michikazu Kojima—discussed the urgent need for the establishment of the right recovery and recycling infrastructure to implement EPR and accelerate transition to circularity.

DENR Undersecretary for Planning, Policy and International Affairs Jonas Leones, and DENR Assistant Secretary for Field Operations-Luzon and Visayas, and Concurrent Environmental Management Bureau Director Gilbert Gonzales facilitated the discussions.

In order to achieve circularity through EPR in the long-term, Teh said the government should establish metrics to verify accomplishments versus targets in accordance with the law provisions, give financial support to the informal waste sector, and put in place resources to establish the infrastructure for circularity.

She said that capacity development, as well as incentives for complying enterprises, and impose fines and penalties are also needed to sustain the EPR system.

In addition, Teh reiterated the significance of continuing to implement RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which establishes segregation, collection, sorting, and recycling in local government units as well as transparency and accountability in waste management.

With over 150 participants from the fast-moving consumer goods sector, development partners, policy leaders, members of the academe, non-government organizations, and key players in waste management, the roundtable dialogue is an event co-presented by the DENR and Nestlé Philippines and organized by Eco-Business.

“It is important to have the voices of all sectors be well-represented because the sustained collaboration among stakeholders and those impacted by these activities and the cooperation and compliance of companies from the private sector, are key to the successful implementation of the EPR Act,” Loyzaga stressed. #