Unilever Philippines writes back

I wrote Chito Macapagal of Unilever Philippines a couple of days ago and he wrote back.

I'm rather floored that an officer of such a huge company took interest in a letter from me and has even offered to give me more information about his gigantic company's environmental practices.

Perhaps there IS hope for a plastic pollution free Philippines.

Anyway, if you guys want to read it, here's Chito Macapagal's response to my letter asking about what Unilever Philippines is doing about Plastic Pollution.

Dear Paul,

I am chito macapagal of Unilever Philippines. I get to know of your inquiry as i was checking online last night. This morning i received a note that your message has been received eventually by our people in the Consumer Affairs group. I was informed that our website has been undergoing some changes and maintenance at that time . That will explain the error messages you were getting. Likewise , our IT has been migrating my notebook for days now to another unit. Still i can not send out reliably my messages through my Unilever email account thus i am sending you this response via my personal email account.

My apologies therefore for the delay in responding to your email. I am writing to you just to inform you that i have read your concerns and the questions you have on this issue. Let me assure you that i will try my best to answer as much of the questions you have . This is a concern we share with you and with other individuals and groups .

We also have a lot of things to share with you particularly our efforts to address this issue. We will share with you the successes, the challenges , the various routes we have taken and the efforts to strategically and positively influence other companies to take action ,to take a collective multi-industry approach and seek support of other sectors and environmental networks. Unilever Philippines have been proactively working for the preservation of the environment for many years now . It all started with helping a public market in Paco Manila to manage it's solid waste , working in the Rehabilitation of Pasig River for close to a decade now particularly when we were invited in the Pasig River Commission as Private sector representative, Reforestation of La Mesa Watershed, Preservation and Protection of Laguna de Bay via CLEAR ( conservation multipartite partnership with LLDA , Society for the Conservation of Philippine Wetlands and the Global Living Lakes network ( all of these initiatives under our Clean Water program ) and now to an overarching Climate Change Action Roadmap and Program which we have started 4 years ago.

Clean Water and Solid Waste Management is one of Unilever Philippines response to the Millenium Development Goal challenges under Environmental Sustainability. We are also focused on delivering on the MDG Nutrition Challenge and Community Building commitments under GK.

Under Solid Waste Mgmt. we have led our South East Asian region in a Program called Project Eliminate sometime 2003-2004. It is a project geared towards finding a sustainable program in managing solid waste from manufacturing sites. Though there has been a lot of sharing amongst our Asean neighbor companies ,the Philippine operation has placed a tough target by aiming to have a zero landfill by 2005 which we have achieved . Doing so allowed us to become compliant with our Solid Waste Management Law. We succeded in eliminating Land fill from our factories not via one actions but through many small painstaking and major breakthroughs in our operation. We started by doing a waste characterisation study , in Payatas and Pier 18 dumpsite to have a clear and reliable data on the impact of our products that uses flexible packaging. This also served as an internal driver and motivation for us to aspire to succeed.

This i will share with you and others who are interested, as we have shared this on many forums and occasions particularly on SM's Green Retail Agenda briefing for mall tenants , various Forums, Zero Basura Olympics, Environmental Mgmt. Bureau etc.

From our own Post Manufacturing waste, we wanted and have made some positive in roads also in Post Marketing waste ( example used tarpaulins from marketing activities ) and now Post Consumer Waste ( sachets together with other flexible packaging and other recyclable plastic packaging falls under this category ). We can share with you the technical options already available to us ( some we have piloted with success ,)which we have shared with other companies and various industries .

We would also like to share with you some behavioral issues that we need to overcome as it is key to having a sustainable solution to the issue and concern you have raised. We have sought expert opinions and suggestions from NGO's , and other partners who share the same passion and concern. We are also in the process of formally organizing a multiple stakeholder group to manage flexible packaging for industries , producers , manufacturers and even consumers. It has been done with great success in another packaging industry here and there has also been a succesful model in at least another country overseas.

Flexible packaging offers a lot of positive benefits for both producers , manufacturers and consumers....i intend to expound and clarify this issue as well with you.

We are ready to disclose and share all this developments with you as we have already done with others. Personally i am very willing to walk you through and personally answer the questions based on facts we have gathered, data we have on hand and results of our various activities. Please let me know what will be a good time for you to come and visit us. I am also willing to meet you and do the briefing where it is convenient to you. I am also very keen in learning ,hearing your views and getting some insights which will help us address the issue better.

Writing to Unilever Philippine's Chito Macapagal regarding plastic pollution

After some searching, I was able to find a media contact for Unilever Philippines.  It wasn't exactly on the Unilever Philippines website media contacts page, but appeared as a fragment on one of the Google search results.  I was also surprised to discover that the Unilever Media Contact page didn't contain a media contact page for the Philippines.

In anycase, I was able to fire off a letter to Mr. Chito Macapagal whom I assume must be in a Corporate Communications capacity.

Dear Mr. Chito Macapagal,

It was rather difficult looking for a way to contact you through e-mail.  Apparently, the link leading to your contact page on the Unilever website had been taken out or replaced.  Moreover, after looking, I found out that no listing for media contacts for the Philippines appears on the contact page.

I was rather lucky enough to find a fragment of the Unilever Philippines Media Contact page and am now able to write to you.

I realize that Unilever Philippines, being firmly committed to helping preserve the environment, must know the impact made by the plastic packaging of its products.

I want to know more about what Unilever is doing to minimize the impact of the plastic packaging of its products on the environment and therefore, would like answers to the following questions.

I would like to know, how many Unilever Philippines products have plastic sachet/pouch variants or are packaged in plastic sachets? 

What are these products? Are the plastic sachets that you use recyclable or biodegradable?

How many of these plastic sachet products are sold in the Philippines?

How do you make sure that the discarded sachets do not end up polluting the environment? 

How do you make sure that they don't end up clogging water ways or the seas? 

Do you have a retrieval system for the sachets that your company uses to package its products?

Moreover, I would also like to ask if Unilever is a participant to the US "Plastics Disclosure Project" of the Clinton Global Initiative, which takes its cue from the Carbon Disclosure Project's carbon and water program.  The project aims to come out with a comprehensive report on every company's plastic usage and encourage the world's investment community to help reduce plastic use, redesign their products and identify programs where money can be saved when it comes to plastic.

I hope my e-mail doesn't bounce back because I really dread having to send snail mail.

After writing to Unilever, I intend to send other companies which also produce products in plastic sachet packaging the same questions.

Aurora Solon files bill against plastic pollution

Congressman Juan Edgardo Angara, representing the lone district of Aurora, has filed a bill which intends to curb plastic pollution.

House Bills 496 or the proposed Plastic Bag Recycling Act of 2010 and House Bill 501 or the proposed Stores Proactive in Plastic Bag Recycling Act of 2010 both bills promoting the reduction of plastics usage, encourage the use of alternative and reusable bags, like canvass or cloth, and devise retrieval and recycling mechanisms for the benefit of the environment.

In a news release posted on the government website just now, Angara explains the need for the law:

The bills seek to establish at-store retrieval and recycling program will be instituted to provide consumers an easier way to partake in this environmental initiative.

"The use of plastic bags must be reduced. This may be achieved by requiring retailers to establish a recycling mechanism for plastic bags and encouraging consumers to use reusable bags," Angara said.

"In the United States, a similar, but seemingly more progressive, move is being pushed to publicly track corporate plastics usage and management plans in the hopes of reducing plastic pollution around the world," Angara said.

Launched at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in Florida, the "Plastics Disclosure Project" takes its cue from the Carbon Disclosure Project's carbon and water program.

"The project aims to come out with a comprehensive report on every company's plastic usage and encourage the world's investment community to help reduce plastic use, redesign their products and identify programs where money can be saved when it comes to plastic," Angara said.

Plastic bags are just part of the plastic pollution generated by companies in the Philippines.

Unilever, San Miguel, Nestle, Procter and Gamble, and other lesser known companies earn billions of pesos from selling products in plastic sachets.

The latest sachet commercial I've seen is the Uno Dos Tres Quatro of Vaseline Shampoo.



Of course, being marketed to the lower income bracket, I can predict a surge in sales that will eventually mean MORE discarded plastic sachets ending up in our country's landfills, waterways, and seas.

Do you think Unilever will pay for cleaning up the mess they create?

I just hope that Congressman Angara, in pursuing this bill, also checks into the plastic pollution generated by companies that use plastic sachet packaging.

Sana magkaruon ng hearing in aid of legislation para magkaalaman kung sino talaga ang pinaka-grabeng plastic polluter.

Unilever Philippines website contact page bug

Noted Philippine Star columnist Jarius Bondoc advised me to write to Unilever Philippines to ask about what they are doing about the plastic pollution generated by their products packaged in plastic sachets.

Wanting to avoid the hassle of actually sending a letter via snail mail, I thought of using their corporate website's contact page.

Click to enlarge.

Here were the questions I wanted to ask:

I would like to know, how many Unilever Philippines products have plastic sachet/pouch variants? 

What are these products? Are the plastic sachets that you use recyclable or biodegradable?  

How do you make sure that the discarded sachets do not end up polluting the environment? 

Do you have a retrieval system for the sachets that your company uses to package its products?

And after filling out the required information, I pressed SEND and the website came back with an error message.

I checked if any of the fields I wrote information on had any mistakes in them and found out there were none. So I tried sending it again and but kept getting the same error message.

I'm now planning hand carrying a letter to Unilever Philippines, after I find out who I should address the letter to.

Anyway, if you guys want to try to make inquiries about Unilever Philippines' environmental programs, try logging on to their website's contact page.

See if you have better luck than me:

http://www.unilever.com.ph/resource/contact/index.aspx

Remember Ondoy: Carlos Celdran to stop using plastic bags

On Facebook, Carlos Celdran swears off using plastic
bags in his store.  We wish others would do the same.

Carlos Celdran announced on Facebook that he will no longer be using plastic bags in his store and this announcement comes just right in time as we all revisit our memories of the Ondoy floods that hit us almost exactly a year ago.

Carlos, in a prior status update, also said that several provinces have banned the use of plastic bags.

Jarius Bondoc, one of Metro Manila's most read columnists, also related that the entire state of California has or will ban plastic bags.

Friends in congress have also informed me of a bill filed by Congressman Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara called "The Plastic Bag Recycling Act of 2010".

The explanatory note of HB 496 reads:

This Act shall be known as “The Plastic Bag Recycling Act of 2010” which seeks to reduce or minimize the use of plastic bags.

Plastic bags are easily carried by wind, escaping from landfills and garbage bins. Plastic carryout bags and film plastic are not biodegradable. These bags break down into smaller toxic bits that contaminate soil and waterways and enter into the food web when animals accidentally ingest those materials, and that these pieces can last for more than 1,000 years.

What’s wrong with plastic bags? Plastic bags are seen as a symbol of wasteful society as they are a form of packaging that is often not essential. As a single use disposable form of packaging, plastic bags are typically used for a short period of time but take hundreds of years to break down in landfill. Plastic bags are extremely visible and unsightly component of litter.

Salient provisions of this bill requires that retailers establish an at-store recycling program and to offer reusable bags (such as canvas or cloth). It is about time that we reduce the use plastic bags and encourage the use of reusable bags for the benefit of our environment.

This is the second house bill that I've been informed about that will, if enacted into law, help prevent the occurrence of another flood as bad as Ondoy.

The house bill that I learned about was HB 127 which seeks to impose taxes on the use of plastic bags.

Few people make the connection between plastic pollution and the Ondoy floods last year or the regular floods that we have in Metro Manila every time it rains.

Yes, the Ondoy Typhoon was powerful and it did dump an unprecedented amount of water on Metro Manila.  Yes, there is an absolute lack of urban planning in Metro Manila and this is the reason why our flood control systems (if it can be called that) is simply inadequate.  Yes to all the other factors that contributed to the Ondoy Floods.

However, one single factor that perhaps aggravated the whole mess that was Ondoy was that most of Metro Manila's drainages and waterways were clogged full of plastic.

The plastic that plugged most storm drains are not just from grocery bags or single use sando bags, but discarded plastic containers (sachets, pouches, etcetera).

The biggest producer of products in plastic packaging are companies like Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Nestle, and San Miguel.

It is estimated that Unilever ALONE produces some 16 square kilometers of plastic packaging and THIS IS ROUGHLY THE SURGACE AREA OF THE PASIG RIVER.

Can you imagine just how much plastic packaging is produced by all of these companies?

In his radio program, Jarius Bondoc said that in Europe, manufacturers of plastic products are MADE RESPONSIBLE for the disposal of the plastic wastes that their products produce.

In other words, the responsibility of these companies to minimize the environment impact of their operations ARE MADE TO EXTEND BEYOND THE GATES OF THEIR MANUFACTURING PLANTS.

This is why Unilever Philippine's crowing about how it cleans its plant's waste water is OF NO SIGNIFICANCE to the real task of CLEANING UP the plastic pollution it GENERATES.