Coca-Cola Philippines enhancing the recycling environment
11 June 2022
This year, COCA-COLA Philippines and Plastic Bank hope to collect 10 million post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) plastic bottles to help combat global packaging waste and boost the country’s recycling ecosystem.
The new goal is to double their previous target of 5 million used PET bottles recovered and diverted from landfills and the oceans by 2021. The program also aims to enhance the lives of Plastic Bank Ecosystem Impact Program partner collectors and rubbish businesses.
Coca-Cola Philippines, Plastic Bank, and the local government of General Trias, Cavite hope to educate more Filipinos about the importance of collecting and recycling recyclable plastics through the Ecosystem Impact Week event, which will take place from June 8 to 12, 2022 at Robinsons Place General Trias. Consumers visiting the mall can bring clean and old recyclable plastic bottles to a collection kiosk to help give these bottles a second life.
“At Coca-Cola, we know that we have a significant role to play in addressing the plastic waste problem,” said Tony del Rosario, president of Coca-Cola Philippines and vice president of Coca-Cola Asean and South Pacific’s East Franchise Operations. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is known as Asean.
“We know that a World Without Waste with demonstrable, positive impact is possible with partners like Plastic Bank, the government, nongovernmental organizations, civil society, business, and the private sector,” del Rosario continued.
Plastic Bank is a social company that works directly with individuals in the informal trash sector as well as micro and small businesses such as junk shops to create collecting and recycling ecosystems in coastal communities. The Plastic Bank Ecosystem provides collector partners with training, tools, and equipment for efficient garbage collection, as well as a source of income. To ensure the program’s long-term viability, the program connects collector partners with markets, material recovery facilities, or junk shop branches that acquire their collected recyclable materials.
According to Gidget Velez, the organization’s principal country development officer, Plastic Bank works with around 500 recycling communities and over 20,000 community members around the world.
“We effectively prevent plastic from reaching the oceans by supporting collection communities in coastal areas,” Velez explained. “Our partnership with Coca-Cola Philippines has helped us reach critical scale in just two years — from the volume of plastic we collect to the number of lives we directly impact.”
To realize its vision of a World Without Waste, Coca-Cola Co. declared a global target in 2018 to help collect and recycle the equivalent of every bottle and can it sells by 2030.
Since then, Coca-Cola Philippines has invested in community activities as well as crucial infrastructure to make the recycling value chain a reality. PETValue, the Philippines’ first bottle-to-bottle recycling factory, is planned to process 30,000 metric tons (MT) of plastic PET bottles each year and create roughly 16,000 MT of recycled PET resins.
Coca-Cola is increasing its waste management efforts.
