Every day, hundreds of plastic wastes are picked up by "Mangrove Warriors" on the shores of Freedome Island. These plastic wastes came from the rivers of Manila, and they are thrown by the residents who have no access to proper garbage trucks.
Most of the plastic trash that they pick up are single-use sachet versions of essentials such as toothpaste, shampoo, soap, and detergent.
Currently, 17 people are employed by the environment agency to help preserve Freedom Island and its forest. The agency, DENR or the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, calls them "Mangrove Warriors" and pays them more than $8 a day. These "warriors" reported that what they collect mostly are plastics, and the number one type of plastic that they pick up are sachets.
During the five days, coastal cleanup on Manila Bay gathered a total of 16,000 kilograms of trash, as shown on DENR's data, and the majority of it are plastics, including sachets that are made of aluminum and blends of plastics.
These sachets give the poorest people in Asia access to essentials. For manufacturers, it is a way for them to increase their sales because they target customers who can't afford to buy products in bigger quantities. Sachets are sold in developing countries, but the Philippines is one of the countries that consume a lot of sachets, around 163 million pieces every day, according to GAIA or The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.
This number will total to almost 60 billion sachets in a year, and it is enough to cover 130,000 soccer fields. In the poorest areas of Manila, garbage trucks are inaccessible, so sachets and other wastes are thrown on the street, and they end up clogging drains and waterways; thus, massive floods always happen, especially during the rainy season.
Manila is one of Asia's megacities, and there are around 14 million people who live there. The Philippines has a population of 107 million people overall, and around one-fifth of them live below the poverty line. That means that their monthly consumption is less than $241 per person.
Because of this, all the essentials are bought by sachet. Consumption can be measured, and it is a lot cheaper. However, because of this practice, much of the plastic trash ends up in the sea. Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, China, and Vietnam are responsible for 60 percent of the world's plastic problem, according to the Ocean Conservancy.
Experts say that the culprits of this problem are not governments or even consumers, but the manufacturers that use plastic packaging and take advantage of the country's poverty-stricken areas to increase their sales. If livelihood is improved for those people who are below the poverty line, they won't have to opt for cheap sachet, thus decreasing the number of plastics that are being thrown away.
