MANILA, Philippines — Coca-Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc. (CCBPI), the bottling arm of Coca-Cola in the country, has signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the City of Manila for the collection and recycling of PET bottles in the metro.

Under the MOA, clear PET plastic bottles—regardless of brand or manufacturer—deposited in contour bottle bins will be collected by Manila’s Department of Public Services, and will then be hauled by CCBPI to its PETValue recycling facility in Gen. Trias, Cavite.

This is the first in a series of projects lined up for the City of Manila.

Recently, CCBPI representatives led by CEO and president Gareth McGeown presented World Without Waste installations—Coca-Cola contour bottle bins for PET collection, educational panels on proper waste disposal and park benches made from thousands of transformed PET plastic bottles—at the Kartilya ng Katipunan to Mayor Isko Moreno and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna.

The wide-reaching sustainability project for the city was made possible through the support of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts of Manila, led by Director Charlie Dungo and his team.

The City of Manila is the latest addition to the growing number of cities and municipalities that CCBPI is partnering with as part of its World Without Waste initiative, the company’s commitment to collecting and recycling every single bottle and can that it sells by 2030.

“Coca-Cola and Manila, through the leadership of Mayor Isko, have always shared the same advocacies for sustainability and this partnership is just another testament to that. We are very much excited to work with the City of Manila for PET plastic bottle collection, and in many more future projects that will realize our common goals,” McGeown said.

“The ultimate aim is to collect every single PET plastic bottle within the city and divert it to PETValue. This would yield collective achievements—among them is helping keep Manila clean, while fostering the value of caring for the environment and strengthening the mindset for recycling,” he continued.

PET plastic bottles: Value beyond first use

World Without Waste installations in Kartilya ng Katipunan include: benches and chairs made from thousands of recycled PET plastic bottles, contour bottle collection bins, and information panels that illustrate the steps involved in proper used PET bottle disposal

Solid waste management remains a challenge across the country. PET plastic bottles are 100% recyclable and have value beyond their initial use—and, therefore, should not end up in landfills or waterways. This recyclable material should re-enter the value chain as resource or feedstock for recycling, which will be processed at the PETValue facility.

Granted pioneer status in 2020 by the Philippine Board of Investments, PETValue Philippines—a partnership between Coca-Cola and Indorama Ventures, a global leader in green tech and packaging solutions—is the country’s first, state-of-the-art, bottle-to-bottle, food-grade recycling facility.

It will employ the safest and most advanced technology to sort, wash, and process used plastic bottles into new ones. The P1-billion facility is set to be completed in Q4 of 2021 and is expected to have a capacity to process around 3 billion pieces of plastic bottles annually.

Manila homecoming

CCBPI representatives led by president and CEO Gareth McGeown and Manila City LGU officials led by Mayor Isko Moreno and Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna during the launch of the PET bottle collection project for the city, which was made possible through the support of the Department of Tourism, Culture and Arts of Manila (DTCAM), as led by Director Charlie Dungo.

Earlier this year, CCBPI opened a new distribution hub in Manila—a true homecoming marking Coca-Cola’s return to the city.

Coca-Cola’s new Manila site utilizes a smart logistics system, promoting innovative and advanced technologies in the country, and will thus serve as a model site for all Coca-Cola distribution centers. This is in line with the company’s commitment to support economic recovery through the expansion of its nationwide footprint, which in turn will generate more jobs for Filipinos.

“We have always put our words into action, and we’ve proven throughout our 109-year stay in the Philippines that the support of Filipinos is integral to that,” McGeown said.

“We are unwavering in our commitment to help in the country’s stable economic recovery— we will continue to work with the national government, local governments, and various organizations across the Philippines. We truly believe that, because we have been coming together in solidarity, our best days are ahead of us,” he concluded.

SOURCE:

Coca-Cola signs MOA with City of Manila for plastic bottle collection and recycling | Philstar.com

Filipinos use around 212 million sachets and shopping bags every day. These numbers reflect the country’s dependence on single-use plastics. The situation has not been improving in the Philippines as the country was tagged as a major contributor to the global plastic waste crisis. Advocates said that the problem is exacerbated by firms that sell their products in cheap, disposable packaging.

Envirotech Recycling Inc., an initiative in Davao City in Mindanao, aims to lessen the plastic waste that would otherwise end up in the country’s oceans or landfills. To achieve its goal, the company collects single-use plastics from communities and big companies and recycles them into useful items such as school chairs. These products, according to Envirotech, are made of 100 % recycled plastic. The company’s President and CEO, Winchester Lemen, said that they were able to process around 2.5 million kilograms (kg) of waste this year in their five plants located across Luzon and Mindanao islands.

“We are advocating to reduce plastic waste, and at the same time, create livelihood programs for everyone. And (we are) helping the Earth heal,” Lemen said, explaining one Envirotech school chair was made from around 20 to 30 kg of plastics.  He claimed that his company was the only one in the country that combined all sorts of waste in its plants. “So, name it— sachets, plastic cups, sando bags, candy wrappers, Styrofoam— we mix it up all together in our plant,” he explained, adding that the finished products proved to be durable as they could not be broken. Based on Waste Ed’s social media video, the plastics that Envirotech collects are shredded, crushed, sorted, melted, molded, and assembled.  Lemen said that workers are equipped with safety gear, and the plants have buffers that filter out the steam or smoke produced during the melting process. Aside from chairs, Envirotech has ventured into making benches, trash bins, and pots, among other functional items.

Chairs and benches made by Envirotech. Image courtesy of Winder Recycling

Dr. Enrico Paringit, the Executive Director of the Department of Science and Technology’s Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development, welcomed Lemen’s initiative.

Although this recycling technology could be an answer to ongoing plastic waste problem for consumers and firms, environmentalist and co-convenor of War on Waste Negros Oriental, Merci Ferrer, thought otherwise. “No, it’s not a solution… it actually encourages companies to create more (plastics),” she said, adding that the initiative was only handling the problem “from the end of the pipe.” For her, it was important to consider the bigger picture. “We need to think of that on a bigger, broader environmental, sustainability issue. The toxicity of a certain material should be one of the top considerations,” Ferrer said, explaining that more studies should be done on the emissions brought about by melting plastics of different types.

Despite the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, Envirotech’s Lemen said that they had several projects in the pipeline for next year. One of them is the Envirohome, a housing project made entirely out of 3,000 kilograms of plastic waste, and it is scheduled to be rolled out by 2021.

SOURCE: Turning plastic waste into school chairs | One Earth

by ANGELICA YANG

Envirotech Waste Recycling collects plastic trash such as candy wrappers, shopping bags, plastic straws, shampoo sachets, junk food packaging and converts them into furniture and building materials.

The recycling company’s owner, Winchester Lemen says he saw an opportunity upon seeing how much plastic waste ends up in the landfill. So he decided to put up a recycling plant in his hometown and started collecting plastic waste from a nearby landfill.

In 2017, he started to make school chairs using recycled plastic. The chairs became popular and drew media attention. Politicians and big companies also supported his idea and incorporated it into their social responsibility campaigns.

Mr Lemen collects plastic waste and converts them into school chairs. 

After the successful implementation of the recycled school chairs project, the business is now manufacturing floor tiles, bricks, planks, and pavers. Before the year ends, the engineer plans to build a 28-sqm house that is made out of 85-90 per cent plastic waste. He’s calling his latest project, EnviroHome.

“We will need at least three tonnes of plastic waste or three thousand kilos of single-use plastic to build one [28-sqm] house,” he says.

The company has started manufacturing floor tiles, bricks, planks, and pavers for their EnviroHome project. 

“We have started the project by making floor tiles and planks that will support the house’s foundation. We are trying to make each component of the house including the ceiling and roofing, which will all be made out of plastic waste.”

Sustainable design

The EnviroHome is designed to meet the needs of families that are living in remote areas. The house will be equipped with solar lights and a water generator device that extracts water from humid ambient air.

“It will take one day to build and can last for 20 years or so with free replaceable parts,” Mr Lemen says.

Each unit will cost around Php 280k to Php 380k or AUD $7,700 to AUD $10,500.

A solution to the plastic problem

The Filipino engineer believes his EnviroHome project is the quickest possible solution to the Philippines’ 5.7 million housing backlog. At the same time, he sees this as an opportunity to address the country’s single-use plastic problem.

A recent audit report in the Philippines has shown the country uses a ‘shocking’ amount of single-use plastic, nearly 60 billion sachets a year.

According to the report, more than half of non-recyclable plastic analysed in the survey came from sachets—small plastic packets often lined with aluminium or containing other materials that make them non-recyclable.

With his mechanical engineering background, he tries to develop machines that will allow him to recycle products that are considered non-recyclable.

“We are now recycling products such as styrofoam, laminated items, junk food packaging and PET bottles that usually just go straight to the landfill,” he says.

“We collect all kinds of plastic. Even the single-use plastic ones that we use every day can be mixed with other plastics to make a [new] product.”

Part of Mr Lemen’s advocacy is to create partnerships with various local government units to set-up recycling plants in their communities. He hopes he would be able to reach out to more communities, get more people involved and inspire them to recycle.

To ensure no more plastic waste ends up in landfill, he is encouraging people to sort their household waste properly and recycle everything that can be recycled at-source.

“I hope people will learn to recycle and sort their trash at home or at source, so it will be easier for garbage collectors and recycling companies [like us] to convert them to useful materials.”

SOURCE: A recycling company in the Philippines is converting plastic waste into building materials (sbs.com.au)

RODA MASINAG

This is the story of a man who turns 30 kilograms of plastic into a school chair! He is not a wizard who indulges a magic trick but a mechanical engineer from Davao City.

Winchester Lemen, president and CEO of Envirotech Waste recycling Inc. (EWRI), a company he created in 2010, processes up to 90 tons per month of plastic bags, candy wrappers, drinking straws, food packaging and other plastic trash, and transforms them using, Winchester Lemen’s invention, into school chairs, benches, picnic tables and lounge chairs. Since 2010 EWRI has produced over than 300,000 pieces of school desks and has now 30 employees. His moto is “We ReUse Your ReFuse”.

EWRI collects around 100 tons per month of plastic from north and south of Mindanao from individuals, municipality and companies. The heart of the process is drived by a Winchester Lemen’s invention – a thermal heating technology – and the plant’s work consists in plastic wastes being shredded, cleaned, melted, and molded. After that the chairs are then assembled, sanded and painted. The final product is really dense and has a striking resemblance with wood in term of touch.

A single school chair is made up of 30 kilos of plastic or the equivalent of 10,000 candy wrappers or equal to 2,181 sando bags or 300 bottles of mineral water. And this is more common plastic wastes that do not end up being dumped in landfills or in canals and waterways! And as if it is not enough in term of environment impact, Winchester adds: “It takes one three-year-old tree to manufacture one school chair. With approximatively 10,000 plastic chairs per month that we make using recycled plastic waste, you do the math.”

On a commercial basis, his company sells a desk for PHP 1,700 for private and public schools, mostly in Metro Manila. “The beauty of this chair is it can last for 20 years” said Winchester. Aside from chairs, they also make pallets and other things such as floor tiles or basketball hoop. In addition, Winchester does not intend to stop here, and Winchester Lemen wants to address the problem of the housing backlog running at 5.7 million units. For this, his company should roll out the first models of a 28-square-meter plastic house, measuring 7 meters long and 4 meters wide. “It will take one day to build and can last for 20 years or so with free replaceable parts,” Winchester says.

Winchester Lemen is a figure as colorful as his chairs. It is difficult to describe the warm and sincere welcome he addresses to his visitors. It is probably best to go visit him, he is an amazing symbol of the Filipino spirit — welcoming, innovative, and optimistic.

SOURCE: We ReUse Your ReFuse (dareteodul.com)

by ZOE

A company in Davao found a way to make use of single-use plastics that are thrown out as garbage. Envirotech Waste Recycling, headed by Winchester Lemen, collects candy wrappers, shopping bags, plastic straws, and the like, to turn them into furniture and building materials.

Initially, he started his project by using plastics to build school chairs in 2017. After its immediate success, Lemen eventually thought of creating a 28-sq.m. house, which would comprise 85-90% plastic wastes. The house, which he calls ‘EnviroHome’, will need at least three tons of plastic wastes to be made into floor tiles, bricks, planks, and pavers, as well as house ceiling and roofing components. His project aims to give families in remote areas a decent home to live in. Lemen also plans to equip the houses with solar lights and a water generator device. It would only take a day in order to build an EnviroHome which can last for 20 years or more with free replaceable parts. A unit is estimated to cost around Php 280,000 to PhP 380,000.

With over 60 billion sachets of single-use plastic reportedly used in a year, Lemen believes that his project is one of the many solutions to resolve the problem on plastic waste, as well as the backlog in the country’s housing sector. Given his background in mechanical engineering, he is also trying to develop a machine that would recycle products which are considered non-recyclable. He hopes that he could partner with other local government units to be able to reach out to more communities and encourage everyone to recycle and create something useful out of those plastics which could only add burden to the world’s plastic waste problem.

SOURCE: Building something from trash: this company in Davao recycles plastics into furniture and more – Agriculture Monthly\

by AGRIMAG

Filipino engineer Winchester Lemen is a mechanical engineer from the southern Philippines and runs Envirotech Waste Recycling to turn plastic garbage into chairs.

Envirotech Waste Recycling (EWRI) began making chairs when a visitor came to his plant to ask if he could make something from recycled plastic, and the engineer presented prototype chairs made of melted plastic from landfills. The plastic garbage is collected, shredded, cleaned, melted and molded. After that, they are assembled, sanded and painted.

The amazed visitor ordered 200 chairs.

The city mayor created a “Green Fund” for the project after the visitor showed the chairs he had ordered from Lemen.

According to its website, since its founding in 2010, the company, “….has been geared towards active involvement in the pursuit to regain the world’s ecological intelligence and balance.”

The country is the third biggest ocean polluter as plastic chokes up the water. A study by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) says that Filipinos use more than 163 million plastic sachet packets, 48 million shopping bags, and 45 million thin film bags daily. To put that into perspective, that’s enough plastic to cover Metro Manila with a foot of plastic in one year. That is 619.6 square kilometers.

EWRI seeks to separate the plastic that it uses as well, following its slogan of “We Reuse Your ReFuse.”

“We also inculcate proper segregation of recyclable mixed plastic waste among the different communities we work with, especially the hard to avoid SOFT PLASTICS like sando bags, and those most often used as packaging for shampoo sachets and coffee packs,” according to the website.

Not only are chairs and benches being made and the environment being cleaned, jobs and livelihoods are created in the process, according to a video released by Lemen.

Lemen explained that the company helps with the backlog of orders on school furniture as the education-eligible population in the Philippines grows.

“The chairs can be used for a very long time, so we do not have to change them every year as was practiced in the past,” he said.

Lemen said that traditionally, chairs are made using trees. Although the cost of these chairs are higher than if they were made using trees, there is a 20-year warranty and have interlocking parts that can be traded out if needed, making sure that teachers and schools get their money’s worth.

“We are saving a three-year-old tree…for every plastic chair we make using recycled plastic,” Lemen said.

SOURCE: KIM NGUYEN

Filipino Engineer Uses Recycled Plastic Waste to Create Chairs for Schoolchildren (nextshark.com)