(Part 2)
Part 1: Low consumption, high leakage: The Philippines’ plastic paradox
MANILA, Philippines — The problem with plastic waste in the Philippines is not just where it ends, but how it moves.
A sachet thrown into a bin does not simply stay in one place. It passes through a chain of production, consumption, collection, sorting, transport, recovery and disposal, with each stage determining whether it is contained or lost. At any point along that chain, plastic can slip out of the system.
In the first part of this two-part series, data showed that the country’s plastic crisis is not driven by how much Filipinos consume, but by how waste is managed. Despite relatively low plastic use per person, more than half of the country’s plastic waste is mismanaged, placing the Philippines among the world’s leading contributors to plastic leakage.
