Livelihoods Powered by Plastic Waste Collection
How USAID is partnering with the private sector to create a plastic value chain
While walking through bustling Manila in the Philippines, it doesn’t take long to come across a sari-sari store. In Tagalog, sari-sari means “everything,” and these small, family-run convenience stores are found on almost every corner of the city.
In Barangay 598, a neighborhood along the San Juan River, Aling Lorme Villarba’s sari-sari store sticks out from the rest. Nestled next to her store is a large, bright green container van filled with bottles, tires, and plastic bags.
Aling Lorme is a part of the Aling Tindera network, a group of micro-entrepreneurs. The network’s name roughly translates to “respected auntie vendors.” Their sari-sari stores with connected container vans have become community collection points for plastics and other low-value waste.
In the Philippines, people use about 163 million single-use plastic sachet packets every day for basic items like shampoo and coffee — that’s 60 billion sachets a year. These small, lightweight plastic packages are difficult to recycle, making them a major source of pollution in the country, and they often wind up in the ocean.
But with the Aling Tindera network, now people can sell their plastic waste to micro-entrepreneurs like Aling Lorme, who weighs and prepares the waste for recycling. This network — run by Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX), a grantee of USAID’s Clean Cities, Blue Ocean program — has prevented over 64 tons of plastic waste from leaking into the Philippines’ oceans.
PCX is a company working with businesses, local communities, and governments to create a sustainable value chain out of plastic. Their mission is twofold: to create a platform for businesses to purchase credits and offset the plastic they can’t yet eliminate, and to empower communities with a livelihood based on plastic elimination.
Corporations have become increasingly eager to recycle plastic waste as they are seeing a market-based incentive to do so. Impact investment companies give money to companies that focus on environment, social, and governance (or ESG) goals, and consumers are more conscious of the ethics of the companies they buy goods from. Simultaneously, more countries are regulating companies’ carbon footprint — which includes plastic, since it is made from fossil fuels — and are requiring these offsets.
PCX has capitalized on this market pressure with a solution that benefits the communities in the Philippines that are most impacted by plastic waste. Corporations like PepsiCo, Colgate-Palmolive, and Nestle pay PCX to offset their plastic footprint, and PCX maintains the Aling Tindera sites, paying the micro-entrepreneurs and community members who bring in plastics, transporting the waste, and processing it in an environmentally sustainable manner.
This year, PepsiCo worked with PCX to expand the Aling Tindera program to 76 locations across the Philippines.
“We have a responsibility — and an opportunity — to catalyze the action and impact needed across the value chain to make a positive difference,” said Anne Marie Corominas, who heads corporate affairs and communications for PepsiCo in North and Southeast Asia.
The benefits here are multifaceted. We all benefit from a world with less plastic waste in our seas, our food systems, our bodies, and in our streets. Companies benefit from the plastic reduction by pleasing shareholders and customers. And the communities most impacted by plastic waste benefit from a cleaner environment, job creation, and additional income.
The job creation from PCX and the plastic value chain comes in a multitude of areas. The sellers in the Aling Tindera network get a commission from PCX, the neighbors get income from selling their plastics, and all of the steps within the waste removal infrastructure require jobs — including truck drivers, warehouse managers, and plastic sorters.
Along the way, sari-sari store owners and their families have embraced their new roles as partners in the recycling supply chain and have created change in their communities.
Nowadays in Barangay 598, children sit by the river and neighbors hang around Aling Lorme’s sari-sari eating her signature Siomai dumplings, a peaceful moment that would not have been possible just a few years ago. The San Juan River used to flood frequently from the plastic buildup.
“I’m very happy to help all of the people within my community,” Aling Lorme said.
With the Aling Tindera program, Aling Lorme and the community are able to live more comfortably and securely with less plastic in their neighborhood. By scaling programs like these, both the private sector and communities around the world can benefit greatly.
About the Author
Ali Syverson is a Communications and Knowledge Management Specialist in USAID’s Center for Environment, Energy and Infrastructure.
