Century Pacific Food, Inc. (CNPF), one of the Philippines’ leading branded food companies, now supports a waste-to-cash program established by the Plastic Credit Exchange (PCEx) – the world’s first global, non-profit, fully integrated plastic offset platform.
Under what is coined the “Aling Tindera” (roughly translated to “Auntie Seller”) initiative, PCEx incentivizes women-owned sari-sari stores to become collection points for post-consumer plastic waste. Primary among these incentives is increased income opportunity and additional livelihood for these women micro-entrepreneurs.
To jump-start their new micro-enterprise, CNPF has installed, for sari-sari store owners of Barangays 432 and Baseco Port in the City of Manila, two purposefully designed 10 to 20-foot containers to assist in their collection of post-consumer plastic waste.
Each container can hold up to 5,000 to 7,000 kilograms of post-consumer plastic waste and now serves as the communities’ aggregation hubs.
Residents can then sell, through their respective “Aling Tinderas”, post-consumer plastic for a predetermined price per kilogram. Once “Aling Tindera” fills up the container, PCEx purchases the lot of post-consumer plastic at a mark-up, then taps its ecosystem of partners who recover, process and recycle the waste.
One of two containers installed by CNPF in the City of Manila for the collection of post-consumer plastic waste
Through this program, both sari-sari store owners and community members are given the opportunity to not only make extra income, but are also empowered to depollute the environment around them.
This initiative forms part of CNPF’s broader sustainability program which includes community livelihood assistance and plastic neutrality as key pillars.
Last January 2021 marked Century Pacific’s second year of being “100 percent plastic-neutral” following a push in 2019 to hit this target by 2020. Being “plastic-neutral” means a company is able to recover the amount of plastic equal to what it uses.
CNPF is the company behind dairy brand Birch Tree – which has also been recognized as a “Plastic Neutral Brand” as verified by third-party auditor Isla Lipana & Co., a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers.
It was able to achieve this by purchasing plastic credits from PCEx, participating in a plastic offset mechanism inspired by the carbon offset industry. Plastic offsetting enables businesses to take action in stopping plastic waste from polluting our waterways and ending up in nature.
“We know that change takes time, but we are willing to rise to the challenge of making our packaging and processes as environmentally-friendly as possible,” said Greg Banzon, Century Pacific’s COO.
He added, “In addition, by incorporating sari-sari store owners in this effort, we are helping build a strong network of women micro-entrepreneurs, who can be catalysts for sustainability in their respective communities.”
