
DENR to integrate informal waste sector into EPR system
ENVIRONMENT Secretary Antonia Loyzaga said she is targeting to integrate the informal waste sector into the expanded producer responsibility (EPR) system for plastic packaging waste.
According to Loyzaga, this is to ensure that no one is left behind as the country transitions toward circular economy.
Informal waste sector includes waste pickers in dumpsites and communal waste collection paints.
“A more holistic overall integration of the informal sector to the EPR system needs to be targeted. Economic incentives and social incentives may be established,” Loyzaga said.
Loyzaga underscored the significant role of the sector in waste collection and management, and the potential contribution they could bring being the “backbone of the currently limited collection services and partly of recycling” in the country.
“Collection and sorting facilities from the informal sector may be transformed into formal activities and establishments. These can be duly registered and supported by the EPR system,” Loyzaga pointed out.
The informal sector, she added, can also be integrated as business partners, such as NGO-supported microenterprises, franchises of formal waste management companies, operating local collection centers, and forming cooperatives and collectives.
“This social inclusion can be improved to develop alternative livelihoods and diversified livelihoods for our informal community,” the DENR chief said.
The EPR law serves as the environmental policy approach and practice that requires producers to be environmentally responsible throughout the life cycle of a product, especially its post-consumer or end-of-life stage.
It aims to address the mismanagement of plastic waste and uphold circularity through maximizing the material value of plastics, thereby, unlocking their full potential to help boost parts of the Philippine economy.