CATBALOGAN CITY – There is a place for plastic waste in the Samar provincial government.

For the past quarter, the provincial government, through the Provincial Environment and Natural Resources Management Office (PENRMO), has been encouraging residents to donate their discarded plastics instead of throwing them away and allowing them to end up in landfills.

The collected soft plastics are cleaned, brought to the Provincial Plastic Recycling Facility, and recycled into monobloc classroom armchairs that are donated to public schools.

At the facility, discarded plastics such as sachet wrappers, plastic packaging, and other non-biodegradable materials collected from communities are processed using recycling machines. The facility produces one armchair for every 25 kilograms of plastic.

Since the facility opened in August 2023, the armchairs it has produced were initially donated to Samar National School (SNS), the most populated high school in the province.

This year, however, the program expanded to schools in the municipalities of Gandara, Villareal, Tarangnan, Calbiga, and Basey.