Eco Top Trumps: Philippines
The Philippines is made up of over 7000 individual islands, so I absolutely cannot speak for the whole nation! However, we did visit the capital city, Manila, a couple of major islands, Palawan and Pangloa, and another major city, Cebu. I think we had quite a good view of both city and island life.
Single use plastic - 5
The Philippines is the first country I’ve really noticed my impact with water bottles. Since the tap water isn’t drinkable, if you’re out and about, you have to buy plastic water bottles. Whenever this was the case, we always tried to choose the largest bottle to make it last longer (although I guess it’s more plastic so not sure if that really means anything) and always recycled it! We also always popped the water straight in our chillys bottles to keep it as cool as possible!
On our first night in Palawan, I stumbled across a stall selling all sorts of reusable items like straws, moon cups and coffee cups. This sort of lulled me into a false perception, thinking plastic pollution was at the forefront of people’s minds!
I could have bought everything on this stall! I opted for some insect repellent (much needed) made out of local honey
I quickly learnt that although this was the case in some areas, it was very dependant on tourists. A bar seemingly run by expats supplied bamboo straws with their drinks, likewise, we got paper straws in our hostels - however any street vendor or fast food chain we always were given plastic straws.
Had to document the giant bamboo straw - and just look at that view!
Having watched the program Drowning in Plastic (BBC), I was aware of the issue of plastic sachets, but it’s only when I saw them for myself do you realise the impact of them! They have a sachet for EVERYTHING: laundry detergent, toothpaste, shampoo (imagine those samples you get in magazines just on a large scale) - think a multi-pack of crisps but for something like hair gel. They are the epitome of single use plastic, buying as many sachets as times you’ll need them. From a social point of view they’re great, allowing someone without a big disposable income to purchase items as and when they need; but surely there must be a better way to package them!
Ease of recycling - 8
Across the Philippines we saw quite a few different posters encouraging recycling and respecting the environment. Along the streets there were big nets or cages filled with plastic bottles, and in general quite a few bins dotted around.
We saw lots of these plastic ‘bins’ dotted around Manila
A positive campaign!
The local beer (red horse) and drinks such as coke and sprite all came in glass bottles with a napkin over the top. It was only after a couple of days we realised that these bottles are reused (so the napkin is for hygiene). I can’t imagine something similar happening in the UK because of the variety of drinks we sell!
Clean environment - 5
I’m not going to lie and say the Philippines was spotless. The river Pasig in Manila is one of the most polluted in the world, the port of Cebu had lots of plastic floating around and the streets in general were not very well kept. Some areas were definitely the most polluted we've seen. However, the score is an average - the beaches were much cleaner than those I visited in the UK. Whether this meant someone was clearing them before we arrived, the ocean currents meant not so much rubbish was washed up, or it was on people’s minds more by the sea. Regardless, the beaches were on the whole very clean!
Though you may not be able to tell from this picture, there was so much rubbish floating in this river! Whilst on a ferry, we saw kids jumping in and playing in it!
Seen on the back streets of Cebu city (this is whilst we were lost looking for our accommodation and definitely in the wrong area!)
An innovative bunting design! Plastic bags all strung together - I saw this a couple of times while in the Philippines.
Local attitude - 6
A story a fellow traveller told me slightly debunks the latter theory! She said they were on a boat trip when a Filipino crew member threw his sweet wrapper in the water. One of the tourists picked it up and sort of crossly gave it back to him (trying to make a point), the man said “oh thank you but I’d finished with it!” And proceeded to throw it back in the sea! I gather the rather shocked traveller picked it back out of the sea and packed it safely away for him to bin later!
Going back to the plastic bottles; we saw something I've never seen before, people drinking from plastic bags. We saw a couple of machines on the street that dispensed water into plastic bags for a little fee. Lots of locals were doing this - I'm quite torn, it's a little better than plastic bottles I guess, but it's still plastic!
(Excuse the sneaky ‘through a window’ shot, but you can just make out the plastic bag this lady is giving to the child, taken from the vending machine.
While having a meal in Manila, we were plunged into darkness, with the tables only being lit by candle light. We were quickly informed by waiters that it wasn’t the power outage we suspected, but the recognition of earth hour! That’s gotta be a positive!
Trying to document our earth hour dinner! (Love that the candle light gave me devil eyebrows)
Final thoughts
I think the Philippines has the system of recycling set up, it just needs to become ingrained into society. In general, the tourist areas were cleaner and seemed to have a more positive attitude towards single use plastic etc. With the fear of sounding like ‘west is best’ it can surely only be a positive that these areas have such an attitude to plastic and the environment. Overtime hopefully it will become more of a norm, just as it is slowly doing so in the UK too.