CNPF to help microentrepreneurs via waste-to-cash program

Food and beverage producer Century Pacific Food Inc. (CNPF), one of the few companies that delivered a double-digit earnings growth in 2020 despite the coronavirus pandemic, has embraced a new program that allows microentrepreneurs to generate income from collecting single-use plastic waste.

CNPF has joined the waste-to-cash program of Plastic Credit Exchange (PCEx), the world’s first global, nonprofit, fully integrated plastic offset platform founded by green advocate Nanette Medved-Po.

Under its “Aling Tindera” (roughly translated to “Auntie Seller”) initiative, PCEx gives women-owned sari-sari stores the opportunity to earn additional income by becoming collection points for post-consumer plastic waste.

To jump-start new microenterprises, CNPF has installed, for sari-sari store owners of Barangays 432 and Baseco Port in the City of Manila, two purposefully-designed 10- to 20-foot containers to assist in their collection of post-consumer plastic waste. Each container can hold up to 7,000 kilograms of post-consumer plastic waste. The containers will serve as the communities’ aggregation hubs.

Residents can then sell to “Aling Tinderas” in their areas post-consumer plastic for a predetermined price per kilogram. Once “Aling Tindera” fills up the container, PCEx purchases the lot and taps its ecosystem of partners that recover, process and recycle the waste.

Through this program, both sari-sari store owners and community members are not only given the opportunity to make extra income, but are also empowered to depollute their environment.

This initiative forms part of CNPF’s broader sustainability program which includes community livelihood assistance and plastic neutrality as key pillars.

January 2021 marked Century Pacific’s second year of being a 100-percent “plastic-neutral” company, which means it is able to recover the amount of plastic equal to the volume of plastic that it uses.

CNPF is the company behind dairy brand Birch Tree, which has also been recognized as a “plastic neutral brand” as verified by third-party auditor Isla Lipana & Co., a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers. It was able to achieve this by purchasing plastic credits from PCEx, participating in a plastic offset mechanism inspired by the carbon offset industry. Plastic offsetting enables businesses to take action in stopping plastic waste from clogging the waterways.

“We know that change takes time, but we are willing to rise to the challenge of making our packaging and processes as environmentally-friendly as possible,” said Greg Banzon, Century Pacific’s chief operating officer.

“In addition, by incorporating sari-sari store owners in this effort, we are helping build a strong network of women microentrepreneurs, who can be catalysts for sustainability in their respective communities,” he added.