WHILE acknowledging the collective efforts of several groups, including local government units, communities, civil society, private sector, and volunteers, in the recent region-wide coastal cleanup, local environmental group Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (Idis) emphasized that the more sustainable solution to plastic pollution is addressing the source of the waste.
“The bigger question is: What will be done with the data gathered from these cleanup activities?
The information collected should go beyond documenting how much waste communities remove from our coastlines. It should be used to identify the products and packaging that persistently end up in the environment, trace their sources, and guide policies that prevent waste generation in the first place,” the group said in a statement.
It cited the report from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Davao that beverage bottles and cans, glass and plastic containers, foam packaging, food wrappers, and small plastic and foam fragments were among the commonly collected items.
“Their continued presence points to a systemic problem that cannot be addressed through cleanups, waste segregation, and individual responsibility alone. Responsibility must begin upstream,” Idis said.
The environmental group calls for stronger national and local policies that reduce the production, distribution, and consumption of single-use plastics and packaging, including the restrictions and phaseout of these materials. And instead support the reuse, refill, and other systems that reduce dependence on disposable products.
“More importantly, we call on the DENR to release and implement the list of Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products and Packaging (NEAPP),” Idis added, saying that the continued accumulation of plastic and other disposable materials in the waterways and coastlines is a testament that the concerned government agency must act on these materials immediately.
Regionwide coastal cleanup
Volunteers gathered 19,115.19 kilograms or 19.1 metric tons of garbage across 32 kilometers of shoreline during the simultaneous 2026 International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) drive in the Davao Region on Saturday, September 19.
Led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Davao Regional Office (DENR-Davao), the region-wide initiative yielded 2,520 sacks of waste across various field sites and attached bureaus.
A total of 6,852 participants from national government agencies, local government units, academic institutions, private firms, and community volunteer groups joined the simultaneous activities across the region.
DENR-Davao conducted its main cleanup drive at Purok 3, Sitio Lawis-Malatabis, Barangay Lizada, Toril District, Davao City.
Meanwhile, the Environmental Management Bureau 11 (EMB-Davao), spearheaded a separate localized cleanup at Seaside 2, Barangay Matina Aplaya, Davao City.
The Matina Aplaya drive retrieved 4,832 kilograms (396 sacks) of waste along an 804-meter stretch, mobilizing 852 volunteers from 92 partner organizations, including the City Government of Davao.
The Matina Aplaya activity, dubbed "CoastCare," formed part of the weeklong activities under the 8th Environment Summit, which will culminate on September 25 at the SM City Davao Annex.
The overall volume collected across the region this year marks a significant increase compared to last year's coastal cleanup at Barangay 76-A, Bucana, Davao City, where participants gathered 692 sacks weighing 4,674 kilograms (4.6 metric tons).
Single-use plastics—including beverage bottles and caps, food packaging materials, plastic sachets, bags, clothes, footwear, and microplastics under 2.5 centimeters—comprised the majority of the retrieved debris across coastal sites.
Delivering a message on behalf of DENR Secretary Atty. Juan Miguel Cuna, DENR-Davao Regional Executive Director Atty. Ma. Mercedes Dumagan stressed the need for individual accountability in waste reduction.
“Regardless of how many Rs we add to the framework of Reuse, Reduce, and Recycle, there is one ‘R’ that makes all the others possible: Responsibility,” Cuna’s statement read.
EMB-Davao Regional Director EnP. Alnlufo Alvarez reiterated that environmental duty extends beyond annual activities.
"May it remind us that our responsibility to the environment continues even after this activity ends," Alvarez remarked during the Matina Aplaya cleanup.
The International Coastal Cleanup is observed annually every third Saturday of September pursuant to Proclamation No. 470.
It aims to promote marine conservation, proper waste segregation, and environmental protection across coastal communities.
Idis’ call
Moreover, according to Idis, the data generated through the International Coastal Cleanup and similar waste audits should help in implementing the list NEAPP.
“If particular products and packaging consistently appear among the waste collected from our ecosystems, these findings should translate into concrete regulatory action not simply another round of cleanup the following year,” the group said.
Idis also called on the City Government of Davao to “strongly and strictly implement its ordinance regulating single-use plastics.”
“The existence of local legislation must translate into consistent enforcement, compliance among businesses and establishments, and meaningful reduction in the use and disposal of single-use plastics across the city,” Idis said, as it also urged the same other LGUs in the region jurisdictions.
“LGUs have an important role in reducing waste at the source by creating an enabling environment for reusable alternatives and moving communities away from dependence on disposable products and packaging,” Idis said.
The group also challenged the LGUs in the region to ask why communities have kept collecting the same kinds of waste every time they conduct coastal cleanup.
“Srong regulation and waste prevention address why it gets there in the first place. We need to move beyond managing plastic waste and start reducing it at the source,” Atty. Mark Peñalver, executive director of Idis, said in the statement.
It also urged the government to strengthen support for community-based solutions.
“Zero-waste programs, barangay-level waste reduction and segregation, materials recovery, composting, reuse and refill systems, and initiatives involving waste workers and local communities demonstrate that alternatives are possible when communities are given adequate policy, technical, and financial support,” the group said. CEA, GRS
