Global biodegradable firm mulls local hub
The investors are still exploring the market, but PEZA is now looking for which ecozone they can relocate to; their potential investments will not only be on recycling but also composting
Daily TribuneThe investors are still exploring the market, but PEZA is now looking for which ecozone they can relocate to; their potential investments will not only be on recycling but also composting
A consortium of Taiwanese and Japanese firms engaged in the recycling business is mulling locations in the country's ecozone to resolve the plastic trash crisis in the Philippines.
Philippine Economic Zone Authority, or PEZA, director-general Tereso Panga said the multi-billion-dollar investment may happen next year.
"They are quite big. This is a consortium of Japanese and Taiwanese firms. Right now, they are not yet ready to announce, as they do not want some of the conventional plastic manufacturers here to react quite early," he said.
In April 2023, Davao City 1st District Representative Paulo Duterte filed House Bill 507 which seeks to "regulate the manufacture, sale, use, and importation of single-use plastic products and the distribution, recovery, collection, recycling and disposal."
The bill also aims to "develop an integrated and comprehensive policy for plastic waste management," which includes packaging, utensils, and other common single-use items.
Reputation will improve
Further, Panga said the entry of the undisclosed Japanese and Taiwanese companies can the Philippines from the reputation of being the only country that uses plastic.
"It is a law already in Europe and a trend now. The Philippines was even blamed for still manufacturing plastics. This investment can even minimize our waste, which is non-biodegradable plastics. This is billions of dollars worth of investments," he said.
Panga said the potential investments will not only focus on recycling but also composting.
"It is not only recycling but there is also a composting component, and they will also produce biopolymers to replace plastics. There will be a significant application, especially in packaging, food packaging. So our compost we won't be importing anymore; this is a by-product of that recycling," he said.
Still exploring
He said the foreign investors are still exploring the market, but PEZA is now looking for which ecozone these investors can relocate to.
A study by Utility Bidder, an independent United Kingdom-based organization that commissioned the Plastic Polluters study, which was released in September 2023, found that the Philippines is the world's leading contributor to plastic pollution in the oceans, with an average of 3.30 kilograms per person per year.
As part of the study, the group monitored countries that emit the most waste per capita into the oceans, countries with the highest likelihood of plastic waste emissions, nations with the most mismanaged waste, and those exporting the largest quantities of plastic waste.