ZAMBOANGA (UCAN): Residents in Zamboanga province, Mindanao, the Philippines, collected thousands of kilogrammes of plastics from the streets and bodies of water and exchanged them for rice from the local government as part of a “Plastic for Rice” campaign to tackle pollution.
The pilot campaign ran throughout April and will be replicated in other provinces struggling to contain plastic contamination, said an official from the Office of City Environment and Natural Resources [OCENR] in Zamboanga City.
The agency director, Marigold Aranza, said on May 1 that in the past, various campaigns to tackle plastic pollution failed but the latest one had been successful. He said residents received one kilogramme of rice for every two kilogrammes of plastics.
She said that a total of 2,084 kilos of rice were traded to residents in Zamboanga for plastic bags and containers during the campaign.
Aranza said they asked residents to deposit plastics instead of burning and throwing them into the sea.
Zamboanga City mayor, John Dalipe, said the programme came as they found plastic pollution was on the rise in the region.
“We started in four to five barangays [local communities] along the coastlines. We noticed the increase of floating plastic containers at sea so we thought of a programme on how to reduce them. A perfect plan would be to incentivise recycling,” Dalipe said in a press conference on May 1.
Dalipe said altogether a total of 4,144 kilos of plastic bags, not counting plastic containers, were freely given by locals.
We started in four to five barangays [local communities] along the coastlines. We noticed the increase of floating plastic containers at sea so we thought of a programme on how to reduce them. A perfect plan would be to incentivise recycling
John Dalipe
“They gave more plastic containers which means the project worked. Some of them just wanted to get rid of their trash,” Dalipe added.
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The OCENR Zamboanga chapter chairperson, Wilmer Cruz, said that local villagers were first hesitant about the sustainability of the project because they did not know the organisers.
“They thought we were a scam… the idea sounds really odd—exchanging plastics for rice. It’s like exchanging trash for food. Who really does that?” he said.
“But when the local government through the Office of the City Mayor introduced us formally to the people, we slowly gained local support,” he added.
Families who participated in the programme claimed they were encouraged to gather more plastics to have more kilos of rice to be brought home.
“We have become more conscious not only of what we throw but of what is in the garbage bin. We have slowly realised there is something good in the trash, so we went to other nearby villages to look for plastics so we can exchange them, too, for rice,” Rodel Enverga, a fisherman, explained.
Some residents went to grocery stores and gasoline stations to collect plastics.
“I know a grocery store here that throws a lot of plastics… even gasoline stations. So, I go there every other day to collect their trash and bring them home so I can exchange them for rice. Not only our bellies are full, but we also help the environment,” Nelly Cervantes, a mother of two, said.
Cervantes claimed that business owners who knew about the project later on sorted the plastics because they knew it meant food for the poor living province’s coastlines.
“They [business owners] instructed their keepers to segregate the plastic for us. Before, they all mixed them together. But now, they have learned to segregate because every kilo meant food for us,” Cervantes added.
The World Bank reported in 2021 that the Philippines is the third-largest contributor of plastic waste in the world, responsible for an estimated 0.75 million metric tons of ocean plastic every year.
