Western Visayas carton collection nears 17.5 metric tons

ILOILO CITY — An empty milk or juice carton can have a second life as paper products or construction boards.

But before recyclers can recover its paper fibers and plastic-aluminum layers, the carton must be collected, sorted and delivered to a recycling facility.

In Western Visayas, Tetra Pak’s Cartons for Communities initiative has recovered nearly 17.5 metric tons of food and beverage cartons since expanding to the region in August 2025, equivalent to approximately 580,000 cartons, according to the company.

The program has engaged 25 local government units (LGUs) across six provinces, 14 schools and 24 commercial establishments.

However, Mitzi Peñaflorida, solid waste management focal person at the Iloilo Provincial Government Environment and Natural Resources Office, said only seven municipalities had been participating in used beverage carton recovery in Iloilo province.

She cited about 12 metric tons of used beverage cartons diverted from the waste stream through the participating municipalities and said the province hoped to expand the initiative to all municipalities, schools and other sectors that generate or use the packaging.

The figures cover different geographic areas, with Tetra Pak’s 17.5-metric-ton tally referring to the initiative across Western Visayas, while the provincial official discussed local recovery efforts in Iloilo province.

The program brings together local governments, collectors, recyclers, schools, commercial establishments and communities to build a collection system for cartons that might otherwise be mixed with other waste.

“The basic secret here is the segregation at the source, starting with households,” Peñaflorida told reporters.

Peñaflorida cited 2018 provincial data showing that Iloilo generated about 300 metric tons of waste daily, with 24 percent classified as recyclable.

Municipalities are now conducting waste analyses as they update their 10-year solid waste management plans.

The province has also been drafting a circular economy ordinance, according to Peñaflorida, who said more work was needed to encourage proper segregation and change waste disposal habits.

Proper waste segregation at the source is already required under Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which mandates local governments to establish systems for waste collection, recovery and recycling.

For Catherine Chua, Tetra Pak’s senior sustainability manager for the Philippines and Singapore, expanding carton collection requires preparing the system behind it before encouraging more consumers to participate.

“It’s like a one-off thing. It’s not sustained. There is no system behind the bin that I put my recyclables in. It actually turns them off,” Chua said during the forum, referring to recycling activities that lack a reliable collection and processing system.

Chua said the company works with partners across the recycling chain so collected cartons can move from households and establishments to aggregators and recycling processors.

The initiative’s target for Western Visayas, she said, was around 50 metric tons for the year.

The program’s local pilot was launched in partnership with Justine’s Recycling, based in Oton, Iloilo, which serves as its primary local aggregator.

The recycling company collects and consolidates recyclable materials from establishments, communities and local government partners before sending them for processing.

“A strong collection system is critical to unlocking the recyclable value of food and beverage cartons,” said Steven Segovia, owner of Justine’s Recycling.

“We work alongside Tetra Pak, LGUs, and local establishments to collect, consolidate, and deliver cartons directly to recycling processors, strengthening the value chain for the environment and local communities alike,” Segovia added.

The initial recovery network in Iloilo province collected approximately 4.8 metric tons of cartons before the program expanded across Western Visayas.

Cartons for Communities has operated in Luzon since 2022, according to Tetra Pak.

The next step is to broaden public participation while ensuring that collected materials reach facilities capable of processing them.

Chua said awareness of carton recycling was still developing compared with the more established collection of plastic bottles.

“The reason why PET bottles are successful today is that they’ve had a decade’s head start,” Chua said.

Chua also said the company was working with stakeholders in the middle of the collection chain while systems were being established to help ensure consumers could trust that their segregated recyclables would actually be recovered.

The recycling process demonstrates why the collection chain matters.

Chua said beverage cartons are compressed into bales weighing about 500 kilograms and sent to Rural Industrial Corporation, a recycling partner in Santa Maria, Bulacan.

At the facility, a water-based machine called a pulper separates the paper fibers from the polyethylene and aluminum layers.

The recovered paper fibers can be reused in paper production, while the remaining polymer-aluminum material, known as polyAl, can be made into boards for construction and furniture applications.

Tetra Pak’s FY2025 Sustainability Report estimated that about 1.3 million metric tons of food and beverage cartons were collected and sent for recycling worldwide in 2025, equivalent to an estimated global collection-for-recycling rate of 27 percent.

The company reported investing EUR 42 million that year to support the collection, sorting and recycling of its packages globally.

Tetra Pak said its Cartons for Communities initiative is intended to make carton collection more accessible, connect local collectors with recyclers and help communities learn how to prepare cartons for recycling by emptying, flattening and sorting them correctly.

“Ultimately, circularity is built locally,” Chua said, pointing to the role of partnerships among local governments, businesses, schools, collectors and communities.

The initiative’s expansion in Western Visayas continues as its partners seek to involve more municipalities, schools, businesses and households in recovering used cartons and directing them to recycling facilities.