MAKATI CITY, Philippines — The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has unveiled a comprehensive long-term plan aiming to reduce the country’s plastic pollution by 85% by the year 2040.
Launched Friday in Makati City, the Philippine National Plastic Action Roadmap 2026–2040 establishes a unified national strategy to prevent plastic waste at the source while enhancing waste collection, recovery, and recycling infrastructure.
Developed alongside the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) Philippines and the World Economic Forum (WEF), the initiative aligns existing legislation, policies, and private-sector efforts into a single coordinated framework.
Environment Secretary Juan Miguel Cuna stated that the roadmap provides a structured path for policy alignment and targeted capital investment.
“Through this Roadmap, the Philippines aims to reduce plastic pollution by 85 percent by 2040. Achieving this requires sustained action across planning cycles and administrations with clear milestones, measurable progress, and accountability,” Cuna said.
The roadmap addresses every stage of the plastic lifecycle, including product design, manufacturing, consumer behavior, recycling, and final residual disposal.
DENR Director for Foreign Assisted and Special Projects Services Al Orolfo highlighted the necessity of system-wide changes, particularly regarding single-use items like sachets.
“Well, achieving that requires, of course, action in the various phases of the value chain of plastic. Second, the behavior changes also across the system,” Orolfo said.
“If this sachet is, of course, one of the big factors in the plastic pollution in the country, and therefore, our producers should now redesign or take some alternatives that can be afforded by our local Filipinos,” he added.
Orolfo also underscored the essential role of the informal waste sector, noting that waste pickers and informal collectors will be crucial partners in increasing material recovery rates to meet the 2040 goal.