THE Philippines is the third largest plastic polluter of the Pacific Ocean, contributing significantly to marine waste. According to a 2021 World Bank report, the Philippines generates an estimated 61,000 metric tons of waste daily with 12 to 24 percent of this is plastic.

A big help toward tackling this seemingly insurmountable problem is coprocessing. The resource recovery group of Republic Cement, ecoloop, reports that it has successfully diverted 21.4 billion plastic sachets in 2023, equivalent to 110,000 metric tons of residual waste used as alternative fuel in the company's coprocessing operations for cement manufacturing.