Philippine diving town swaps trash for rice to clean up its beaches

MABINI, Philippines — Green campaigners in a diving resort in the Philippines have come up with a novel way to clean up the town's shores — offering to swap a bag of rice for every sack of trash gathered by local residents.

Mabini in Batangas province is known for its vibrant corals and marine biodiversity, but a rising tide of plastic pollution poses an increasing threat to marine animals such as sea turtles, said volunteer Giulio Endaya.

"They've been known to eat straws and plastic bags, and the fish also eat microplastics that have been broken down in the shore," Endaya said.

But since the rice-for-trash programme began nearly two years ago, more than 4.3 metric tonnes of plastic waste have been collected, he added.

In turn, 2.6 tonnes of rice have been distributed. The rice is handed out in 1kg bags — enough to meet a small family's daily needs.

Private donors and small companies contribute funding to the programme, which also helps low-income families reduce their food bills following a sharp rise in rice prices in recent years.

"In a month I need four-and-a-half sacks of rice, now all I have to buy is two sacks, which is a big help," resident Janeth Acevedo, 46, said as she sorted through trash that she had gathered.

The Philippines is the world's largest contributor to plastic waste in the ocean, accounting for 36 per cent of the global total, according to an updated April 2022 report by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. 

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