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In the history of life on Earth,
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humans are among the youngest life forms.
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Nurtured by nature,
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we became many.
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In a short time, we changed the face
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of the Earth.
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Plastics were developed to make life easier.
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But it may also cause our demise.
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We met people
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who are resisting.
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Here's what they are doing.
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Celso Lee
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is an artist living in San Jose del Monte in Bulacan.
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He hardly spends anything for his art
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because his materials are mostly free.
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I'm able to help
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reduce plastic waste
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because I use what people throw
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in the streets or wherever.
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I can teach others
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to make hats,
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bags, vests,
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pants, shoes and home décor out of it.
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There's a lot you can do.
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I feel cool when I wear this.
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I've gotten praise for it.
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It makes people turn their heads when I walk by.
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Like I’m a celebrity.
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Everyone greets me.
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They say things.
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I just smile.
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Celso's outfit is made out
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of pull tabs of soda cans and plastic bottles,
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a kind of single-use plastic.
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Single-use plastics,
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of course, are often just used once.
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These include straws, sando bags,
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snack packaging, and sachets.
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Nearly half of the garbage in the streets,
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in dump sites
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and even along mangroves are composed
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of single-use plastic.
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Many rely on small packages
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or sachets to meet their everyday needs.
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But these end up in piles
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of garbage in our surroundings.
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Our world is drowning in plastic.
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Did you know that nearly half of the plastic we buy
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is only used once?
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In Binangonan, Rizal province,
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we met a family that’s turned its back on
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a waste-producing lifestyle.
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Wife and mother April Balahan
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made sure their baby
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stopped using plastic diapers.
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After I gave birth, we used disposable diapers.
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In our area,
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garbage collection isn’t reliable and the diapers created so much waste.
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My problem
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was finding an alternative.
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Six months passed
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before I found the solution: cloth diapers!
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I felt guilty that we were just throwing
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the disposables away anywhere.
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It fits, right?
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No need to put it in plastic. Just place them here.
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Where do you get
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your baking soda now?
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According to studies,
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in one year, each Filipino typically uses
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and throws away 200 kilos of plastic.
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This is unacceptable to April.
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When we're at home,
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of course, plastic bag...
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When we go to the market,
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we minimize the use of plastic.
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I learned how to sew produce bags.
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The veil I wore at my wedding,
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it was just in our cabinet.
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I realized I could make produce bags out of it.
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I sewed them by hand.
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A few are now in tatters
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but I'm still able to use the others.
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So tell myself, "wow this is one."
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These are used once but last forever.
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Plastics last forever because they don't decompose.
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Think about it: you finish drinking soda
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in a few minutes then you throw
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the plastic away.
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In one year, how many times will you drink soda with a straw?
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People don't think that the straws will accumulate.
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They only think of the present
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and lack foresight.
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Many don't have this mindset.
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This family can be seen as living nearly a zero-waste lifestyle.
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Whatever litter you see outside
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surely did not come from them.
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At the start,
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of course it was difficult because old habits die hard, right?
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So I learned to be patient [with my family]
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until little by little
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they adapted.
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The reminders have finally worked
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so they now do these tasks.
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More than 400 million tons of plastic
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were produced in the world in 2015.
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This amount of plastic
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can bury the entire Philippines two-stories deep.
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Some joke that your garbage is lucky,
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it can travel far.
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And sometimes its journey has no end.
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If it doesn’t make it to the landfill,
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the water takes it here.
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On the shores of Manila Bay,
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between Parañaque and Las Piñas,
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lives the last ancient forest in the metropolis.
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Filled with various species of mangroves,
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it’s a refuge for migratory birds.
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The fish here
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probably ingested plastic.
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What are you catching?
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Tilapia.
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How do you catch them? Do you dive or use a net?
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A net.
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How does the tilapia here taste? Different?
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There's no smell.
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Even if there's a lot of garbage?
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Is it clean here?
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There's just a lot of plastic.
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Yes, but how about the water?
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It's polluted.
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But is it okay to eat the fish caught here?
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If the water is polluted, how can you say
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it's okay to eat?
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We're used to it.
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Water from the estuaries connected
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to the Pasig River
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ends up in Manila Bay.
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So even in this corner of nature,
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it smells like Manila’s estuaries.
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How does it feel to be one of the guardians
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of this mangrove area in Manila Bay?
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This is the only remaining mangrove in Metro Manila.
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We're proud that the government—
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the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources)--
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entrusted
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the care
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of the mangroves to us.
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So it's your job to clean here?
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Yes, sir.
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What do you think of all this trash that keeps reappearing here?
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I feel bad.
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We're sad because we clean every day
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but there's still a lot of garbage.
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And we don't have anyone to blame.
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Where does all this
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garbage come from?
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From the major rivers, sir.
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They come from the communities. That bridge is the mouth of the river.
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I caught something heavy.
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Oh my God, the baby is falling!
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There seem to be a lot of basketballs here.
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There's one, two, three, four.
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Four basketballs.
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It's easy to blame people who throw out trash.
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But according to groups studying the issue,
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companies should also bear responsibility.
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They should make product packaging that is biodegradable
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or not harmful to the environment.
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We would like to call on companies
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to come up with solutions
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and innovations in product design.
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What's happening
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can be compared to a leak in the faucet.
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What we do is just remove
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the spilled water.
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We segregate
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and recycle
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but we don't fix the root of the problem.
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Nobody is working to stop the leak itself.
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That is where most of our garbage problems originate.
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According to studies released
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by the World Economic Forum in 2016,
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by 2050
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there will be more garbage in the sea
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than fish.
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It also cited the Philippines as the third
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largest producers of plastic waste thrown in the sea.
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April is investing in reusable items.
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I bought this last September.
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This is an investment
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because it's insulated.
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It's quite pricey
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but I've been able to skip so many plastic bottles because of it.
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This is my lunch box.
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It has three layers that make it useful when I take out food.
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I bring it all the time.
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I remember we went to a party
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and there was so much disposables.
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We used our
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stainless steel
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forks and spoons.
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When you shift to a zero-waste life,
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you should be like a girl scout: always ready.
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Aside from cloth diapers,
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she found a solution to an even bigger challenge.
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These are my menstrual cups.
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At first I was hesitant to use one
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but when I met people online
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who were using it, they gave me good feedback.
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Their feedback was very positive, so I told myself, why don't I use it also?
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Her family switched to bamboo toothbrushes.
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April admits that reusables
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can be hard on the pocket
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but in the long run, you save more.
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When I think of the long-term costs,
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I feel I'm able to save.
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While some are able to save by avoiding using plastic,
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Celso Lee dreams of helping
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his community earn money
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from plastics they just throw away.
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Once my talent was unleashed,
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I felt it should be put
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to use by creating livelihood for others.
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I just need to teach one person in each barangay,
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and then they can teach the rest.
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My hope is that other people
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will follow my example.
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I'm calling on the jobless,
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those not doing anything,
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to learn to do this so they can make money.
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Is Ella there?
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I'll help myself to some bottles, okay?
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His craft is not limited
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to art and décor.
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At first glance, Celso's hammock looks like it was made
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from a different kind of mat.
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Like his other creations,
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this was made from soda packaging.
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There are techniques that only I know.
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Techniques that look difficult
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to execute
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but are actually easy.
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He says this is strong.
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After all, plastic doesn’t decompose,
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which is why it ends up in heaps.
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It’s not biodegradable like paper or wood.
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Plastic is integral to our daily life,
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so it's hard to avoid using it.
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April is doing what she can,
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but her effort is made harder
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because her family owns a small store.
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Her response to this is
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to make ecobricks.
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These are bottles stuffed with sachets
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and other plastics that can serve as hollow blocks
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in wall construction.
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I campaigned for this in the office
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and I was able to encourage some of them.
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April introduced ecobrick-making
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to her office.
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Due to her advocacy against plastic,
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she was dubbed the “sustainability star”
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at work.
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She was recognized by our country manager.
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He endorsed her idea of using newspapers
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rather than plastic in trash bins.
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Another big accomplishment for her
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is convincing food vendors
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to switch
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to paper containers.
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She really took it to another level.
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She was given an award.
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The ecobricks April and her co-workers
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make are given to environmental groups
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who use them to build structures.
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A school in Lubao, Pampanga
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built a sturdy-looking room with it.
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So this is made of ecobricks.
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How about the floor?
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Made from bottles.
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Different colors.
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Led by the Kapampangan Manalakaran Incorporated,
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students in San Pablo 2nd High School
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were taught how to make use of ecobricks.
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We chose this school because it caters to 15 communities.
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The student body here comes from different communities
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so each student can take
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what they learn about plastic here
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and bring it to their own community.
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The finished structure looks good
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but its use hasn’t been maximized.
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It's leaking inside.
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What do you think can be done to remedy this?
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I would suggest
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the bottles on the roof
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be attached more closely
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and make the concave side face the sky to improve the flow of water.
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Ecobricks reduce the plastic waste that ends up in landfills.
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But this is just a stop-gap solution,
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much like a band-aid.
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The long-term solution
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is found within our homes and communities.
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Garbage?
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Garbage?
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On the day of garbage collection
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in Maimpis in San Fernando City in Pampanga,
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there’s no garbage truck going around.
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Garbage?
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Take them out.
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This one holds the plastic.
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Then here, I put the waste
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that decomposes.
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I put paper products here,
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including the diapers
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because there's paper material in it too that can be dissolved.
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Then I place the recyclables here.
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The recyclables can be sold to junkshops.
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Each home in this community
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has learned to segregate their waste.
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If they bring it out unsegregated,
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the garbage man will not collect it.
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What we do here in the house is segregate at the start.
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For example, when we cook,
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we already start separating the waste
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and place them in designated bins
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before it’s collected.
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Less garbage is easier to deal with.
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The choice is in the hands of people.
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If you want to do something, you’ll find a way. If you don't, there are so many excuses.
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After it’s collected,
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the garbage is brought to the segregation area
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behind a school.
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Because the system works,
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there’s no stench.
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Even the flies are few.
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How do they benefit from this?
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They used to throw out 100% of their waste.
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Today 70% of that .
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has become recyclable
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They are able to sell that,
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which adds to their household incomes.
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Not just that – having a cleaner neighborhood led
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to fewer dengue cases.
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Before we had 50 cases a year, now we only have 5-10.
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How did the number go down?
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They used to throw trash in empty lots,
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so we cleaned those up
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and turned these into urban gardens.
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If the benefits are so significant
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and obvious, how come others don't do it?
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In many communities,
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often there is no political will to create the program.
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We committed to do what is necessary.
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There's already a law about this
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and it only needs to be implemented.
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And of course, it helps the environment.
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Maimpis has received many awards
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recognizing their plastic and waste disposal system.
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Segregation has long been required by law.
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It was introduced in 2000 with the enactment
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of Republic Act 9003 .
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or the Philippine Ecological Solid Waste Management Act
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But after nearly two decades,
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only a few places are complying.
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From the community,
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the unrecyclable waste is brought to the city
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transfer station in San Fernando.
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Segregation at home does a lot of good.
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For one, it has helped the city reduce the budget allotted
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to waste disposal and use the savings
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for other projects
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like building roads
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and schools.
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Before, the city government spent P7 million (US$130,480)
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every month on waste management.
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Today it spends only P2 million (US$37,280).
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Monetary savings are one thing,
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but what can’t be measured is the feeling…
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that what you do is good for your conscience,
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for your home,
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and for the future.
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It won't fit!
00:24:02
In April's home,
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we’re reminded that each of us has a duty
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to help solve the growing crisis in our environment.
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As Jose Rizal once said,
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life matters only
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when there is a purpose beyond one's self.
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I won't become rich from doing this.
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But there are many other reasons.
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I do this for my son.
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I'm doing it for his future. That’s the essence of this.
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I don't want to hear my child say some day that his mother didn't do anything
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and now the world is full of trash.
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I want him to remember me
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as someone who did something.
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The future, the environment –
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we didn’t borrow this from our elders.
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We are borrowing it from the future of our children.
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The elders in my family have told me that in the past
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you didn't have to leave Manila
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to swim in the sea
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or go on a nature trip.
00:25:13
Today, the small strip of mangroves along the shore of Manila Bay
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is a reminder of that bygone era.
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But even here,
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it doesn’t take long before you’re confronted
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by a much larger truth.
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From Manila,
00:25:37
I am Howie Severino
00:25:39
and this I-Witness.
