PH losing $790-$890M a year from unrecycled plastics — WB

THE Philippine economy is losing $790-$890 million a year in terms of potential material value of recycled plastics, according to a new World Bank paper.

Released on Tuesday, the Washington-based multilateral lender’s “Market Study for the Philippines: Plastics Circularity Opportunities And Barriers,” said the total material value that could be unlocked from plastic recycling in the Philippines is $1.1 billion annually.

This is assuming all four key plastic resins in the Philippines had 100 percent — Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET), High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Low-Density Polyethylene/ Linear Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE/LLDPE) and Polypropylene (PP) — collected for recycling or CFR rates and obtained the maximum value in the market, it pointed out.

However, the report said only 22 percent of the total material value of plastics or $246 million a year is currently unlocked.

“This results in $790-890 million a year of potential material value that is lost to the Philippine economy,” it revealed.

With this, the study said fully addressing this market opportunity will require public and private sector investments to improve waste collection/sorting, an enabling environment to improve recycling economics, and other systemic interventions.