Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), the country’s leading infrastructure investment company, further reinforces its thrust towards sustainability, after signing a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Basic Environmental Systems & Technologies, Inc. (BEST) and BEEPXTRA Philippines Inc. (bXTRA) for their Trash to CashBack program.
Through this partnership, the company aims to help minimize waste pollution through the promotion of proper segregation at source and recycling that supports a circular economy. MPIC will collaborate with BEST and bXTRA to implement an effective and cost-efficient solid waste management program.
“Our commitment to national progress always takes environmental impact into utmost consideration,” said MPIC Chairman and President Manuel V. Pangilinan. “Implementing programs like this with like-minded organizations help us further achieve our goal of creating a cleaner, greener, and more sustainable Philippines.”
Transforming Trash to Cash
BEST and bXTRA initiated the program to encourage households, offices, other establishment and communities to properly segregate recyclables from their sources, referred to as My Basurero Eco-Communities or MBE-Cs. In the process, they receive environmental points equivalent to CashBack in order to encourage them and make this practice sustainable.
“Partnering with MPIC, a company that embeds environmental stewardship in its strategies, helps us ensure the cost-effective implementation of solid waste management programs,” says BEST Senior Vice President Dwight Ramos. “With our partnership, we are together in pushing forward the new NIMBY or ‘Now In My Backyard’, where each one of us ensures that our waste is reused, converted into new products in the circular economy, and supports sustainable living.”
bXTRA President and Managing Director Jan Vincent Mercado acknowledged the importance of this partnership to be implemented at the community level, particularly at the communities along Laguna de Bay, to increase awareness on waste management. MPIC, along with its subsidiary Maynilad, have developed the Laguna de Bay Welfare Awareness Program (LAWA) to jointly protect the Laguna Lake and its surrounding provinces, cities, and towns.
“This program is a mode of prevention from the actual collection of waste in Laguna Lake, as we are actively preventing the waste from physically reaching the lake,” says Mercado. “This is a very promising partnership, and we believe that with everybody’s help, we can really make a difference.”
MPIC will implement the Trash to CashBack program as part of its strategy to create a sustainability mindset among its employees. By end of the year, the environmental points will be converted to grocery items, which will be distributed to its partner communities in low-income areas.
“As we tackle climate change, we must also take urgent action to address the growing concern on waste pollution that causes adverse effects on the environment, people’s health, and even economic growth,” says Chief Finance, Risk, and Sustainability Officer Chaye A. Cabal-Revilla. “We hope that by being good environment stewards, we will create more awareness and contribute to our country’s sustainable development.”
MPIC’s partnership with BEST and bXTRA is aligned with Gabay Kalikasan, one of the MVP Group’s Gabay Advocacies for a Sustainable Philippines. It is also in line MPIC’s efforts to contribute to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), particularly SDG 11 Sustainable Cities and Communities and SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.
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