WE HAVE a bottle deposit system going on for many years now. This system however is mostly at the level of retail stores, basically to avoid paying for lost or broken bottles when buying new stock. In supermarkets, this system is not practiced nor required.
Last week I learned that there is a proposed law authored by Senator Joel Villanueva that will make this bottle deposit system mandatory. Under Senate Bill No. 1032 or "An Act Requiring the Implementation by Brand Owners of Management Plans that Provide Refund Values for Certain Beverage Containers", the beverage industry is mandated to prepare, submit, and implement a management plan that sets out an effective disposal mechanism and accounting of beverage containers. It was filed in August of 2016 and is still pending at the committee level.
Under the Bill, brand owners in the beverage industry are required to implement an effective system for the redemption, transportation, processing, marketing and reporting for the reuse and recycling of beverage containers that they sell into the domestic market. Beverage refers to alcoholic or non-alcoholic, carbonated or non-carbonated drinks. Containers include those made of metal, glass, plastic, paper or a combination of these materials.
The bill seeks to institutionalize the refund-deposit system. Under the scheme, individuals who will return beverage containers to designated sites, like retail stores, will receive money as an incentive for properly disposing recyclable waste. The proposed refund value of a beverage container is P10. The bill mandates brand owners to recover at least 80 percent (that’s tough) of their containers within two years. If they fail to do so, they will pay the difference.
The current informal deposit system is only for soft drinks and beer glass bottles. It would be a big challenge to implement the law for plastic containers like those used for mineral water and soda. It is an even bigger challenge to do it for flexible packaging (doypacks) and tetra paks. I wonder how the beverage industry is reacting to this Senate bill.
There’s a downside to this bill. For sure, the junk shop industry and the livelihood of waste collectors will be affected. A big chunk of their income come from plastic bottles, especially PET, which are collected free from sources like households. It might also affect the production cost of secondary users of glass bottles like vinegar and soy sauce makers.
To address this, the bill provided for special financial assistance for displaced workers which shall be allocated and included in the appropriations under the Technical Education and Skills Development (Tesda). It will be used to finance training programs for affected workers. No assistance was included for the affected industries relying on reused containers for packaging.
The Philippines is not the only country that is planning to implement this deposit scheme. England announced early this year that all drinks containers, whether plastic, glass or metal, will be covered by a deposit return scheme. They have a high-tech way of doing this however. They are planning to install “reverse vending machines” which will give out money when used drink containers are inserted into it.