Extended producer responsibility (EPR) in the Philippines is showing promising results, a case study showed.
The “EPR in the Philippines: Early Learnings and Insights for Emerging Markets Battling Plastic Pollution” quoted data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ Environmental Management Bureau which said 947 companies of the 2,130 businesses falling into the current Obliged Enterprise scope had registered in the program as of August.
The study, published by PCX Solutions, said those companies enabled the recovery and diversion of 163,000 metric tons of post-consumer plastic packaging waste in 2023.
The EPR Act, which lapsed into law in 2023, requires companies with at least P100 million in assets to take responsibility for an increasing percentage of their plastic footprint, rising from 20 percent in 2023 to 80 percent in 2028.
While not all Obliged Enterprises complied in the first year, the majority of the largest plastic packaging producers have complied, and many went beyond the minimum 20 percent recovery target for 2023.
Companies that do not comply face escalating fines, and ultimately the loss of their business license for repeated offenses.
The study said more initiatives are needed: dealing with decades of legacy plastic pollution; enabling policies to create the supply and demand for recycled materials and to reduce and eliminate unnecessary plastic packaging; further mechanisms and guidance to achieve social inclusion and just transition; and national standards to establish transparency, credibility and accountability. The case study noted there are six upstream measures that can reduce companies’ plastic footprint, such as the use of recycled content, reusable packaging or refilling, and six downstream measures to recover their footprint, and plastic crediting is one of them.
