Philippines: Technology Around the Globe

By: Joseph Seabra
The Philippines which is located in southeast Asia has become one of the leading producers of air pollution in the world, along with one of the leading producers of discarded plastic waste that ends up in the ocean. Regarding the Philippines problem with plastic pollution in the ocean it was reported in 2015 by the Ocean Conservatory Charity that the Philippines was the “third-largest source of discarded plastic that ends up in the ocean” with an estimated 2.7 million tons of plastic being discarded into the ocean each year from the Philippines(Vila, 2018). In the article 10 Ways Technology Will Change The World By 2025 by Business Insider one technology that is listed is biodegradable packing materials which will replace plastic bags (Borison, 2014). The reason that this is so important in the case of the Philippines is that the countries plastic pollution is dominated by the discarding of small plastic packaging bags called sachets.

In a study conducted by the Waste Assessment and Brand Audit (WABA) from 2014 to 2018 it was estimate that daily in the Philippines over “163 million sachet packets” were used, most of which was estimated to be dumped into the surrounding ocean(Subido, 2019). The amount of these small packets that are produced, and eventually discarded into the ocean could be reduced through the mandatory implementation of cellulose packing materials. This way if current rates of ocean pollution by companies were to continue it would be better for this waste to be made of biodegradable materials that would decompose compared to the nonrecyclable plastics that are currently being utilized. The effectiveness of a mandatory implementation of biodegradable packing products within the Philippines could not be truly measured, because of the nation’s division into multiple smaller islands. The main problem for this increase in discarded plastic waste has been theorized to be a lack of implementation of plastic reduction by the country’s smaller islands. As stated by Froilan Gate the executive director of the Philippines branch of the Global Alliance for Incinerator alternatives “an absence of garbage collection services in secondary cities, and many of the country’s smaller islands is largely to blame”(Vila, 2018).

The technology of biodegradable packaging materials is truly a revolutionary material and would not just be beneficial for the Philippines but for countries all over the world. Biodegradable packaging materials which are primarily made from cellulose are biodegrade unlike plastic materials, which means that they can be decomposed by living organisms. The market for producers of Biodegradable packaging does seem to be growing at a substantial rate with multiple companies trying to produce efficient and functioning biodegradable products. If this technology is successfully implemented and distributed across the world specifically in southeast Asian countries such as the Philippines who serve as some of the largest sources of discarded plastic in the ocean, it can be assumed with confidence that there would be a reduction in the amount of ocean plastic by the year 2025.

References

Borison, R. (2014). 10 Ways Technology Will Change The World By 2025. In Business Insider. Retrieved August 28, 2019, from https://www.businessinsider.com/10-ways-technology-will-change-the-world-by-2025-2014-6

Subido, L. (2019). Filipinos Throw Out Over 163 Million Sachets and 93 Million Plastic Bags Each Day. In Esquire Mag. Retrieved August 29, 2019, from https://www.esquiremag.ph/life/health-and-fitness/philippines-plastic-pollution-statistics-a00288-20190308

Vila, A. (2018). Philippines plastic pollution: why so much waste ends up in oceans. In South China Post. Retrieved August 28, 2019, from https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/health/article/2168819/philippines-plastic-pollution-why-so-much-waste-ends-oceans