DENR chief wants inclusion for trash pickers
ENVIRONMENT Secretary Antonia Loyzaga has underscored the need to empower and improve the lives of waste pickers by ensuring their full integration into an evolving solid waste management sector.
According to Loyzaga, the informal waste sector is still locked out of the value chain of solid waste management, but they are in fact, critical and essential as part of the supply chain.
This sector includes waste pickers in dumpsites and communal waste collection points.
The DENR chief stressed that waste pickers play a key role in waste management and segregation, but are often not included in discussions on policies to improve their lives and livelihoods.
Speaking at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature-Philippines (WWF) media event in Quezon City, Loyzaga underscored the need to enhance the status and work conditions of the informal waste sector and to invest in capacity building to transform their vulnerability.
“Through the EPR (extended producer responsibility) and the circular economy, there is an opportunity for us in government and for you all to promote social inclusion,” she added.
Following the enactment of Republic Act 11898 or the EPR Act of 2022, Loyzaga has been supportive of the integration of the informal waste sector in the EPR system to ensure that no one is left behind as the country tries to build a circular economy for plastics.
An amendment to RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, the EPR law requires large companies to adopt and implement policies for the proper management of plastic packaging wastes.
Loyzaga called the EPR law as a “concrete start and a strategic approach to waste reduction that maintains an environmental responsibility with producers throughout the lifecycle of the product.” Moreover, the DENR chief said the EPR system provides an opportunity to promote social inclusion of waste pickers by ensuring their rights and protection to guarantee their income and survival.
To improve the lives of waste pickers, Loyzaga said there is a need to partner with local government units (LGUs) in rolling out financial literacy programs and to build their skills for entrepreneurship and other types of activities in order for them to build capital to transform their current situation.
“By doing so, we can enhance the direction and the strategic impact of social protection programs and direct them specifically to address this sector’s needs,” she stressed.
