Tritek Reverse Logistics Corporation

TRITEK PRESIDENT SEES TIGHT SCRAMBLE AMONG OEs FOR PLASTIC CREDITS IN COMING YEARS

In his short message during TRITEK's MOA signing with Ajinomoto Philippines for the management of its trade returns and business wastes, TRITEK President and CEO Eric Arandez highlighted the looming shortage of plastic credits from cement companies in the coming years.

This gap is expected to start in 2025 when Obliged Enterprises (OEs) are required by the EPR Law to recover or divert 60 percent of their plastic footprint from landfills, and up to 2028 where the required diversion goes up further to 80 percent.

"Most of our friends and partner cement companies are saying that their co-processing capabilities can only accommodate 20 percent of the country's total plastic footprint print this year," Arandez said.

"What happens to the balance required for diversion?, he asked.

Currently, OEs rely mostly on Plastic Credits issued by co-processing companies to achieve their Net-Zero plastic status. But these cover mostly their pre-consumption plastics wastes, not significantly their post consumption plastic wastes.

He further added that the co-processing capacities of cement companies would not significantly increase in the next two years unless cement companies would increase their cement-production capacities as well, which maybe unlikely given the current cement demand.

Arandez pointed out that the only remedial action he sees to address this looming gap is ,one, for OEs to shift away from multi-layer plastic or sachet packaging and convert them into sustainable and recyclable packaging.; and two, adopt aggressive buy-back programs of the post consumption plastics that they generate and support upcycling and recycling programs for these.

The total plastic wastes of the Philippines is projected by the DENR and the World Bank to hit 2.4 Million MT in 2025.

On the other hand, the DENR reported in its April 2025 that, as of December 2024, only 978 out of an expected 3,000 OEs have submitted their EPR programs.

Further, out of the total 489,000 kgs plastic footprint that these OEs have submitted, 164,000 kgs, have been diverted or 33 percent. This is higher than the required 20 percent diversion of the EPR law in the same year.

The MOA signing was also attended by Ernie Carlos, Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) of Anjinomoto, and Rachel Marie Luna, Country General Manager of Scholars of Sustainance (SOS) Philippines.