Long one of the world’s top sources of ocean plastic, the Philippines is hoping new legislation requiring big companies to pay for waste solutions will help clean up its act.
Last year, its “Extended Producer Responsibility” statute came into force — the first in Southeast Asia to impose penalties on companies over plastic waste.
The experiment has shown both the promise and the pitfalls of the tool, which could be among the measures in a treaty to tackle plastic pollution that countries hope to agree this year.
The Philippines, with a population of 120 million, generates some 1.7 million metric tons of post-consumer plastic waste a year, according to the World Bank.
Of that, a third goes to landfills and dumpsites, with 35 percent discarded on open land.
The EPR law is intended to achieve “plastic neutrality” by forcing large businesses to reduce plastic pollution through product design and removing …