Overcoming plastic pollution in the Philippines’ largest city

Quezon City is trying to take the lead by showing it is possible to get people to adopt something new. We want to try to eliminate all forms of unnecessary or avoidable plastics. I am the mayor of Quezon City, and this is the largest city in the Philippines. We are now focusing on our circular economy. People tend to buy in small amounts, usually packaged in sachets. When these plastic wastes are not disposed of properly, they tend to clog our drainage systems, and they cause a lot of flood

ing. One way in which we are trying to address the sachet culture is by introducing refilling. One sachet costs 11 pesos. One pump costs about 3 pesos. People have now opted to do pumping into recyclable containers. Every village has a materials recovery facility, where waste is segregated. In the Trash to CashBack program, sachets are encouraged to be collected by people in the community. Then we set up exchange hubs, where they bring their recyclable materials in exchange for environmenta

l points, and they can use these points to purchase essential goods like groceries or to pay for their bills. The Single-Use Plastics and Disposable Materials Ban is an ordinance of the city government in which we require all restaurants, as well as hotels, to eliminate, stop using plastics. We are in a stage where you will be very challenged to see plastic bags here in Quezon City. If this can be shown to be successful in one city, then other cities can be inspired to replicate what we've d

one. If you put your heart and mind to something that you believe is so important, it can be done, and it will be done.