If you’re in the Southern Luzon area, you can now drop off your plastic waste at the newly designated Plastic Waste Collection booths in SM Dasmarinas and SM Rosario in Cavite from 10AM to 5PM daily starting October 21. The program accepts most types of plastic waste excluding PVC pipes and tires.
Examples of acceptable plastics include plastic shopping bags, PET and HDPE bottles, Styrofoam, disposable containers, utensils and straw, sachets, snack packs, shampoo, conditioner and detergent containers, bubble wrap, and e-commerce pouches. All plastic waste to be dropped off must be empty, clean, and dry.
SM Cares’ Plastic Waste Collection Program is a program in partnership with Plastic Credit Exchange and social enterprise HOPE. It aims to promote eco-stewardship among SM mall-goers by providing them with an avenue where they can dispose of their plastic waste responsibly. The newly designated Plastic Waste Collection booths in SM Dasmarinas and SM Rosario makes them 13th and 14th malls, respectively, to be used as sites for the program to date.
Instead of ending up in landfills or bodies of water, the materials collected through the initiative are processed into various resources: as components for cement, paver blocks or planks, and soon, recycled PET bottles, among others. HOPE handles the weighing and hauling of the plastics and brings them to valorizing affiliates for processing.
Through a multi-stakeholder approach and the support of the communities in its existing sites, the program so far has successfully diverted 27,287.15 kgs of plastic since its launch, which is equivalent to 35,193.128 kgs of CO2, and 45,569.5405 kgs of CO2 reduced by coal replacement.
This amount is equivalent to 140,587.46 km driven by an average passenger vehicle; 4,280,985 mobile phones charged; 11,067.65 kgs of waste recycled instead of landfilled; 1.1 garbage truck worth of waste recycled; 1,523 trash bags recycled; 1,334 incandescent lights switched to LEDs; or 582 seedlings grown for 10 years.
“With this program, part of our goal is to create a circular economy for plastics in the country that our mall-goers can contribute to simply by visiting our malls, reducing the barriers to participation for them,” said Program Director for SM Environment and Sustainability Engr. Liza Silerio. “It’s just one of our ways of being a responsible partner towards building sustainable communities.”
SM Cares’ other eco-stewardship and sustainability initiatives include the annual Green Film Festival, which promotes environmental awareness among the youth; the AweSMSeas project in partnership with the USAID and PRRCI, which promotes responsible plastic waste management to lessen marine plastic pollution; and the International Coastal Cleanup that gathers thousands of volunteers every year.
Through these SM Cares supports the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly “SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation,” “SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities,” “SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production,” “SDG 13: Climate Action,” “SDG 14: Life Below Water,” and “SDG 15: Life on Land.”
SM Cares is the corporate social responsibility arm of SM Supermalls, responsible for initiatives focused on sustainability and community development. In addition to its Programs on Environment, SM Cares’ advocacies include programs on Women and Breastfeeding Mothers, Persons with Disabilities, Senior Citizens, Children and Youth, and Bike-Friendly SM Malls. Visit www.smsupermalls.com/smcares and www.facebook.com/OfficialSMCares/ to learn more.
