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A broader look at today’s business Saturday, June 1, 2024 Vol. 19 No. 228
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‘GIVE IT A CHANCE TO WORK’ Less than 2 years after its enactment, lawmakers, regulators and private business revisit the Extended Producers Responsibility Act (EPRA).
CHARLENE GO-CO, Megaworld Hotels and Resorts Corp. group director of marketing communications
DIRECTOR Neil P. Catajay of the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards
‘G
By Andrea E. San Juan Photos by Bernard Testa
IVE it a chance.” This was the take of an executive from major food and beverage player Nestlé Philippines, on how to move forward with the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law, a measure that aims to hold large enterprises accountable for plastic packaging waste.
CAITLIN NINA PUNZALAN, Corporate and Government Affairs Lead at Mondelez International
SEN. Mark A. Villar
JOSE UY III, Senior Vice President and head of corporate affairs at Nestlé Philippines
Pointing out that amending the law is not needed right now as the measure is already “straightforward,” Jose Uy III, the Senior Vice President and head of corporate affairs at Nestlé Philippines, said the country should first work on its environmental footprint. “More than the revision, I think the EPR is already straightforward. Let’s work first on our footprint before we keep on revising. Let’s give it a chance to
make it work, and then we can trim or improve along the way,” Uy said at the forum organized by the BusinessMirror on Friday, billed as “Updates on the EPR Law Implementation and Sustainable Goals of 2030.” The forum was held at the Hotel Lucky Chinatown, which belongs to the Megaworld Hotels and Resorts Corp. chain.
Mark Villar’s commitment
BEFORE Uy spoke, Sen. Mark A. Villar addressed the forum and assured his support as lawmaker for any policy tweaks that may be needed through legislation or advocacy work, saying the EPR mandate is “close to my heart.” In his speech, Villar said “it is important to [receive or discuss] updates so we see the impact of this law.” He described the EPRA as “a proactive response to the critical imperative of addressing the issue of plastic waste,” noting UN reports that governments are falling far short of what’s required to reduce pollution from plastics. Meanwhile, he cited the need to “encourage” local government units (LGUs) to “stimulate grassroots discussion on the importance of achieving Net Zero.” The EPR Act or EPRA, enacted 18 months ago, was mainly authored by the other Villar in the Senate: Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Environment committee and a declared champion of “circularity” in her lawmaking and personal initiatives. Continued on A2
Overflowing e-waste: Vietnam’s sprawling recycling market turns trash into treasure By Aniruddha Ghosal & Jae C. Hong The Associated Press
H
O CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam—Dam Chan Nguyen saves dead and dying com-
puters. When he first started working two decades ago in Nhat Tao market, Ho Chi Minh City’s biggest informal recycling market, he usually salvaged computers with bulky monitors and heavy processors. Now he works mostly with laptops and the occasional MacBook. But the central tenet of his work hasn’t changed: Nothing
goes to waste. What can be fixed is fixed. What can be salvaged gets re-used elsewhere. What’s left is sold as scrap. “We utilize everything possible,” he said. The shop he works at is one of many in a market that spreads across several streets filled with haggling customers. Most repair shops are a single room crammed with junked electronic devices or e-waste with tables placed outside. Workers, many of them migrants from across Vietnam, repair or salvage items like laptops, scarred mobile phones, camera lenses, teleContinued on A2
A VENDOR selling used remote controls for various home appliances takes a nap in Nhat Tao market, the largest informal recycling market in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, January 28, 2024. AP/JAE C. HONG
PESO EXCHANGE RATES Q US 58.6200 Q JAPAN 0.3739 Q UK 74.6584 Q HK 7.4990 Q CHINA 8.1056 Q SINGAPORE 43.4512 Q AUSTRALIA 38.8709 Q EU 63.5148 Q KOREA 0.0427 Q SAUDI ARABIA 15.6295 Source: BSP (May 31, 2024)