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Is this not because 1. the Philippines is a bunch of islands, mostly tiny ones; where 2. the smaller islands have mostly-agrarian populations who live mostly be
by derefr 3y ago
Is this not because 1. the Philippines is a bunch of islands, mostly tiny ones; where 2. the smaller islands have mostly-agrarian populations who live mostly below the poverty line, and therefore can't maintain reliable working electrical infrastructure, let alone municipal waste + recycling collection infrastructure; and so, in combination, 3. the trash just piles up near homes in these areas, and then gets easily washed out to sea every time it rains, because effectively everywhere on a tiny island is directly upslope of the ocean?
I'm not sure what "censure" would do to address that problem. It seems endemic to the conditions that a large number of Filipinos live in — in a similar way to how India's highly-polluting use of wood and dung for home cooking fires seems endemic to the conditions a large number of Indians live in.
- feitingen 3y agoThis is the reason. By far, most people in the Philippines live in poverty and anything affordable to poor people comein plastic sachets. Instant coffee, shampoo, detergent, soap, almost everything is most affordable in a plastic sachet, and usually in very small amounts. The detergent is enough for two small loads of laundry, the shampoo for two or three showers, etc. This is combined with virtually no garbage handling, and often where there is garbage collection, it usually goes to landfills which are close to the sea and "leaks" plastic to the sea every time it rains or the wind blows. Some places have started banning plastic shopping bags, but until there is an alternative or regulation to plastic sachet packaging, this problem won't go away.