Barangay Tejeros Tops Coca-Cola Philippines’ Barangay Tapon to Ipon Initiative

Barangay Tejeros in Makati City has proven how shared goals can turn everyday recycling into a lasting community practice. Recognised as the top-performing barangay in Coca-Cola Philippines’ Barangay Tapon to Ipon program, Barangay Tejeros demonstrated how shared action strengthened community bonds, improved waste segregation, and encouraged inclusive recycling. 

The awarding ceremony, held at the Barangay Tejeros basketball court, culminated in a community fiesta featuring games and activities. After placing second the previous year, Barangay Tejeros rose to the top spot in the latest run of the program, reflecting sustained participation and commitment across the community.

The event brings the community together through interactive games, prizes, and shared merienda, celebrating the winning barangay’s achievement while reinforcing recycling as a fun, inclusive, and owned community practice.

Recognizing grassroots recycling efforts

Barangay Tapon to Ipon is a yearly, nationwide community recycling initiative powered by Coca-Cola Philippines in partnership with barangays, local leaders, and sari-sari store owners. The program engaged barangays, residents, and sari-sari stores across Metro Manila to collect and properly segregate PET bottles. It supports barangays in implementing Republic Act No. 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, while helping build sustainable recycling habits at the grassroots level. 

This year, 20 barangays around Metro Manila joined the friendly competition, collecting PET bottles while strengthening waste segregation and recycling practices. The awarding ceremony recognized the barangay’s collective effort, highlighting the role of residents, youth volunteers, and sari-sari stores in driving impact at the local level.

Barangay Tejeros collected nearly 40,000 PET bottles, equivalent to 698 kilograms, followed by Barangay 114 in Caloocan City in second place with a collection of about 21,000 (375 KG), and Barangay Moonwalk in Parañaque City for third place with 17,000 (310 KG).

Barangay Chairman Wilfredo S. Leonardo said visible results motivated their community to stay engaged and take pride in their efforts. “Noong nakaraang taon po, second place lang kami. Siyempre, gusto na naming maging number one. Kaya nang dumating ang pagkakataong ito, sinabi ko talaga sa mga kasamahan ko na gagawin namin ang lahat para makuha ang number one,” Leonardo said. “Pinasasalamatan po namin ang Coca-Cola sa patuloy na pagpili sa'ming barangay upang maging bahagi ng programang ito. Kaya inalagaan at sinuportahan namin nang husto ang aming pagsali dito.”

(“Last year, we were only in second place. Of course, we wanted to be number one. That’s why when this opportunity came around, I encouraged everyone to do our best so we can be number one.” Leonardo said. “We are grateful for Coca-Cola for consistently inviting us to join their program. We will continue supporting and joining this cause.”)

Along with their recognition, Barangay Tejeros was given 10 Coca-Cola stools made from recycled plastic, a Barangay Tapon to Ipon tent, Coca-Cola beverages for community events, and a Premium Linis Barangay Kit with cleaning and safety supplies. The barangay plans to integrate these into existing programs and continue encouraging participation from households and sari-sari stores.

Sustaining momentum beyond the campaign

For Coca-Cola Philippines, the nationwide recycling initiative forms part of a broader collection initiative, which includes over 6,000 collection points nationwide. The aim is to bring the collected bottles to PETValue Philippines, the country’s first food-grade bottle-to-bottle recycling facility located in General Trias, Cavite. PETValue Philippines processes used PET bottles and transforms them into recycled PET (rPET), which can be used to produce new food-grade beverage bottles. 

“Programs like Barangay Tapon to Ipon foster the spirit of bayanihan, bringing communities together to achieve a shared goal,” said Tony Del Rosario, President of Coca-Cola Philippines and Vice President for Franchise Operations East of Coca‑Cola Far East Limited (CCFEL). “By making recycling fun and engaging, we help barangays build a culture of sustainability, where collective action at the grassroots creates ripple effects that can help strengthen recycling practices in communities across the country.”

Through this effort, Coca-Cola Philippines continues its commitment to collection and sustainability by working alongside barangays and local partners to turn local action into long-term recycling habits and responsible waste management.

To learn more about Coca-Cola Philippines’ sustainability initiatives, visit the company’s Sustainability Hub at www.coca-cola.com/ph/en/sustainability.

Take Small Steps for Big Change: SM Waste-Free Future Illustrates Doable Actions for a Cleaner, Greener Planet

MANILA, Philippines - Becoming part of the solution toward better waste management practices has been made easier by SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SM Prime) with The SM Waste-Free Future (WFF) Manual. 

 

Launched at SM’s first Sustainability Expo, the 17-page visual guide offers a simple and easy-to-follow resource on how everyone can engage with waste management touchpoints available in their most-loved SM Supermalls. 

 

"The easiest way to adopt sustainable practices is a two-pronged approach," said SM Supermalls Vice President for Corporate Compliance and Sustainability, Liza Silerio. "The first is building the avenues that make waste management accessible and easy to do. The second is ensuring that these are easy habits to build and practice in our daily lives.” 

 

The manual combines text and visuals to enhance the "Learn - Practice - Champion" workflow, a three-step approach to make these practices easy to adapt and eventually pass on, with additional green tips and trivia.  Understanding how even small, thoughtful steps can make a huge difference is key to helping reduce waste sent to landfills. 

Back to Basics

To further understand the composition of our waste, SM Prime led a Waste Analysis Characterization Study (WACS) in its largest development–the SM Mall of Asia Complex. The top 10 most common waste items were identified:  

 

PET Bottles

Plastic Cutlery

Single-use plastic

Plastic cups from coffee or milk tea

Soiled coffee paper cups

Soiled food containers

Food packaging and sachets

Soiled tissue or napkins

Soiled diapers/ sanitary products

Food waste

 

The SM Waste Free Future manual encourages everyone to properly dispose of waste by using designated Recyclable-Disposable-Compostable (RDC) bins made accessible in all SM Malls.

PET Bottles are categorized for the Blue "Recyclable" Bins to help return these to factories for recycling.

Disposable items and containers such as plastic cutlery, single-use plastic, plastic cups from coffee or milk tea, soiled coffee paper cups and food containers, food packaging and sachets, and soiled tissue or napkins, diapers, and sanitary products are for tossing into the gray "Disposable" Bins. 

Finally, all food waste with no packaging and cutlery are guided to the green "Compostable" Bins.

 

As one of the fastest-growing solid waste streams in the world, Electronic Waste (E-Waste), ranging from batteries to broken gadgets and technological accessories, gets special mention. SM Supermalls promotes proper disposal of e-waste through special bins in SM Cyberzone areas as easy drop-off points for recycling or processing before disposal of small, used, and defective electronic devices. 

 

Take-action, join the movement

Every first Friday and Saturday of the month from 10:00am to 2:00pm, mallgoers can bring their trash and convert it to cash. Trash-to-Cash encourages household segregation by bringing clean and dry recyclables in designated Trash-to-Cash areas in exchange for economic incentives. The program promotes sustainable systems and the advancement of the circular economy. 

To further divert plastics from the environment, SM implements its Plastic Waste Collection program across all of its properties. Since its integration in 2019, 70,000 kilograms of clean, empty, and dry consumer plastics have been collected.

Through SM Cares, SM Prime’s corporate social responsibility arm, regular coastal cleanups are organized for communities to mitigate the problem of marine pollution by removing waste before it spreads further in the seas. Last year, volunteers were able to divert 200,000 kilograms of marine litter from the ocean through three major coastal cleanups organized nationwide on top of weekly cleanups done by SM Estates.

Another Coastal Cleanup drive has been scheduled this year on March 22 across SM La Union, SM City Urdaneta Central, SM City Tanza, SM City J Mall, SM City Daet, and SM City Consolacion for World Water Day.

  

"Communicating waste management practices clearly and easily helps our stakeholders support our vision for a Waste Free Future. When we all come together and choose to help save our planet, even the smallest actions toward the right direction yield great results," said Silerio.

 

Trash to Transformation: How the SM Green Movement is Building a Circular, Waste-Free Future

MANILA, Philippines — Proper waste segregation can make a meaningful environmental impact when the correct bins are used. At SM Supermalls, the Recyclable–Disposable–Compostable (RDC) system empowers customers to take part in a nationwide Green Movement. This initiative aims to promote circularity, divert waste from landfills, reduce methane emissions, and prevent soil and water contamination.

“Through SM’s RDC bins, we are not only encouraging customers to adopt responsible waste disposal habits, but also enhancing the efficiency of our waste management systems to better serve our communities. Waste is often an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ issue, so we are committed to ensuring that our approach delivers tangible environmental benefits,” said SM Supermalls Vice President for Corporate Compliance and Sustainability, Liza Silerio.

Waste Conversion Pathways 

As part of its #SMWasteFreeFuture project, SM’s waste processing arm, SM GUUN Environmental Company, was established in Consolacion, Cebu, in 2024. There, waste collected from the in-mall RDC bins in Cebu malls is corrected and re-sorted for conversion into industrial raw materials for recycling, fuel or soil.

“An ecosystem of corporate partners enables us to optimize our waste management processes and ensure that recovered materials are reintegrated into the value chain. Through this closed-loop approach, waste is transformed into reusable resources and given a renewed purpose beyond its initial lifecycle,” said Silerio.

Blue Bin: Recyclable to RECYCLED

"Recyclable is only a promise, but RECYCLED is a promise kept”

Recyclables are simply 3 items: bottles (plastic and glass), cans (aluminum and tin) and cartons. Because these 3 items have the highest recycling infrastructure available. 

Recyclables are sorted by material type at the factory and returned to corporate and development partners for reprocessing: MultiPly for paper; San Miguel Yamamura and Asia Brewery Incorporated for glass; Coca-Cola’s recycling arm, PETvalue; and Nature Spring’s recycling arm, NS Sustainability Solutions, for plastic bottles. This process ensures a streamlined supply chain for recycling and increases recycled content in the next packaging material for their products.

Gray Bin: Disposable to FUEL

Disposables like cups, straws, rags, and other hard to recycle disposable containers are processed into coal alternative fuel at the waste processing factory. The waste undergoes sorting, formulating, and shredding to fuel the manufacturing of cement and its ash as cement materials. Quality assurance is key to reducing pollutants at the emission control systems of the cement factories.

Cement manufacturing partners such as DMCI (Concreat), Holcim (Geocycle) and Republic (Ecoloop) utilize these waste-as-fuels to support their operational energy requirements and reduce the use of coal while helping the environment.

Green Bin: Compostable to SOIL

Compostables are mainly food scraps and leftover food. These are fed into a machine that converts them into landscaping soil within 48 hours, avoiding the landfill and methane gas from decaying matter. Landfills are one of the largest sources of methane gas, which is over 20 times more damaging than CO2.

The resulting soil is used for landscaping and urban greening initiatives, with partners including J.Co, BlueSkye Go Circular, Goldilocks, and Fat Hopes Energy supporting its development.

PCX Celebrates 16 Philippine Companies for 100% Plastic Footprint Recovery

PCX Markets recently held their PULSE event, where they honored 16 Philippine organizations that have committed to achieving 100% recovery of their plastic footprint for 2025, marking a significant step toward responsible production and sustainable practices.

From everyday packaging to industrial waste, the world has produced more than 9 billion tons of plastic, far more than our planet can handle. Of all the plastic ever made, only about 9% of plastic waste is recycled, 19% incinerated, and 72% landfilled, openly burned, or ends up in the environment. In response, PCX is taking accountability for plastic waste and working to reduce the harmful impacts of the plastic pollution crisis. Guided by its mission to ensure no plastic ends up in nature, PCX is driving the nation’s shift toward a circular economy where plastic is recovered and re-circulated as useful materials through reuse, refurbishment, remanufacture, recycling and more.

With the passage of the Republic Act No. 11898 or the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022, large companies in the Philippines are required to take responsibility for the post-consumer management of their plastic packaging waste.

Through PCX, Obliged Enterprises are fulfilling their obligations to collect and responsibly process the plastic packaging waste they put out into the market. PCX Markets works hand-in-hand with PCX Solutions to provide end-to-end EPR compliance support, from footprint accounting to implementation and reporting, empowering companies to design effective reduction and recovery strategies and meet EPR Law requirements. 

This year, the organizations that have committed to achieve the equivalent of 100% plastic recovery of their plastic packaging footprint for the compliance year 2025 include Beko Pilipinas Corporation, Century Pacific Food, Inc., Concepcion Durables, Inc., Concepcion Midea, Inc., Concepcion-Carrier Air Conditioning Company, Concepcion Industrial Corporation - Cortex Technologies Corporation, Domino’s Pizza Philippines, Generation Hope, Inc. (HOPE), General Odyssey, Inc., L’Oréal Philippines Inc., Mitsubishi Motors Philippines Corporation, Monde Nissin Corporation, Mondelez Philippines, Inc., Mr. DIY, The Pacific Meat Company Incorporated, and Wild Flour Bakery + Cafe Corp., modeling the kind of leadership and action we need to see more broadly across the private sector to tackle this urgent challenge.

“The leaders we honored today show that responsible action is possible. When companies commit to verified recovery of 100% of their plastic footprint, we can turn the tide on plastic waste and create lasting impact for people and planet,” said Ms. Nanette Medved-Po, Founder and Executive Chair of HOPE and PCX.

PCX Markets offers an end-to-end suite of plastic responsibility tools, including packaging EPR compliance software, verified resins, and a transparent platform for purchasing verified plastic credits that fund the collection, transport, and responsible processing of plastic waste to help companies achieve their plastic recovery goals.

Last year, PCX Markets successfully enabled the diversion of 160 million kilograms of plastic waste from around the world, through 44 projects and 238 companies in 14 countries, including the Philippines. 

To know more about PCX and its mission, please visit https://www.pcxmarkets.com/ or follow PCX on LinkedIn for more updates.