Philippine diving town swaps rubbish for rice to clean up beaches, lower food costs

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 rubbish 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 tons (9,400 pounds) of plastic waste have been collected, he added.

In turn, 2.6 tons (5,700 pounds) of rice have been distributed. The rice is handed out in 1-kg bags (2.2 pounds) – 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 rubbish that she had gathered.

The Philippines is the world’s largest contributor of 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.