Secretary Tony Yulo-Loyzaga in 2023, 24 per cent of this waste comes from plastic. Perturbed, Medved-Po challenged her team to find a way to take responsibility. In 2018, they declared a mission against plastic pollution, setting out a bold goal to “safely process the equivalent of 100 per cent of their plastic footprint” to ensure that post-consumer plastic does not contribute to the growing amount of plastic waste in the oceans and landfills. “Years ago, I would never have thought I would be somehow be involved in trying to help solve the plastic pollution crisis,” she says. Fast-forward to today: HOPE is proud to have diverted 4,103,193 kilos of plastic waste through its Aling Tindera waste-to-cash programme.

But among the many programmes Medved-Po leads, one of the programmes she is very proud of is the HOPE in a Coconut project, which aims to plant its 2nd million coconut trees in Mindanao this year. Through this project, the organisation provides farmers with free, high-quality seedlings, hoping to ensure incremental income for the families for up to 60 years. “These trees also deliver 100 per cent additional carbon sequestration for the Philippines, which we all know is on the front lines of the climate crisis,” she says. “Sometimes you just need to help wherever you see an opening.” 

The project came about because Century Pacific Food, where her husband, Chris Po, is the executive chairman of the board, sources raw materials in Mindanao to produce ready-to-drink coconut water brand Vitacoco, and Medved-Po saw the opportunity to help. “From my work in education, I learnt that many of the poorest communities are the smallholder farmers—often agrarian reform recipients—who live below the poverty line. I suggested finding a way to support their livelihoods in the region,” she says. 

More than farm inputs, the programme provides farmer training, logistics support and market access. “Over time, we realised that so many coconut trees were already non-productive, cutting off income for families. This led to a heavy focus on giving away new seedlings with even more partners who care about this issue–like the GCash community,” to help augment income loss in the long term, she says. 

Because HOPE in a Coconut has been well supported, the philanthropist is optimistic that they may surpass their target by delivering almost two million trees in Mindanao this year. “We would be happy to expand the programme to other parts of the country if we can guarantee market access,” she adds.

Also read: Nanette Medved-Po on Asia’s Most Influential

Besides agriculture interventions, Medved-Po is incredibly proud of HOPE’s waste-to-cash programme called Aling Tindera. The initiative works with female micro-entrepreneurs, mostly sari-sari store owners, who buy plastic waste from their communities and divert it to processing partners using plastic as feedstock. “We are introducing the same concept of dyaryo-bote [the community junk shop]. [The Aling Tinderas] weigh and buy the plastic waste from their communities and then store it in a container van until enough is collected to be picked up for processing,” she explains. This benefits residents, who can convert trash to cash, and the local government units, as the scheme helps to reduce waste and associated problems like flooding and disease. “This is a perfect example of multi-stakeholder problem-solving [women, communities, LGUs, brand partners and in some cases, the informal waste sector]. So far, we have seen some of our Aling Tinderas earn 48 per cent more income for their families and have injected more than PhP10 million into their communities, [while also] keeping over four million kilos of plastic waste out of nature,” Medved-Po proudly says. 

As she explains how Aling Tinderas work with so much joy and pride, she calls out to Lorme Villarba, a woman who has been part of the programme for nearly four years and is present during the shoot. Villarba lives in Santa Mesa, near the Pasig River. When she became part of the Aling Tindera programme, the barangay captain in the neighbourhood instructed everyone in the community to segregate and sell their plastic waste to Villarba instead of throwing rubbish into the river, esteros or the streets. “When I [first] met Lorme, her store was tiny,” Medved-Po says. “She would collect the plastic waste and buy it from her neighbours, so the neighbours would get money from the sale of plastic waste and naturally, since they had money, they would spend it to buy things in her tiny sari-sari store, be it for snacks or other necessities.” 

It’s a circular economy, and it works. The community earns from selling the plastic waste that could have polluted the environment; the Aling Tindera earns from selling this waste to HOPE’s team, as well as from the profits from her sari-sari store; the local government unit saves its budget for waste management because HOPE’s team also takes care of collecting the rubbish they gathered in a container van; and ultimately, the trash collected would be diverted or processed so they don’t go to the landfills and bodies of water. “Lorme’s [Aling Tindera] site was so successful, and it also gained funding support from USAID. Also, her small sari-sari store has now expanded to add an office supplies store,” Medved-Po says, looking proudly at Villarba. “Now, her husband is even running for barangay kagawad because people appreciate her sustainability efforts in their community.”

Villarba’s Aling Tindera site was also visited by US senators and representatives when they came in 2022. US Senator Edward Markey said of the Aling Tindera programme: “This is so brilliant. The oceans are choking on plastics … This programme is an answer to the problem. You have figured out a way to recycle that rewards everyone who is a part of the process, and it’s something that isn’t just applicable to the Philippines—this can be used anywhere, including the US”. US Representative John Garamendi agreed: “A financial incentive so that people will recycle; what you’ve done here is to complete the entire process. We can take this back home”.

As the Tatler photo shoot continues, Medved-Po spots another Aling Tindera filling a rubbish bag with the empty bottles that once contained a commercial-brand purified water. “Look, this one has probably more than a kilo of plastic waste already. And because the Aling Tinderas know they can sell these to us, they took the effort to collect them right here where we are now. When they see plastic, they automatically think it’s money. It generates income for them, so they collect them,” she says, proving the adage May pera sa basura, or there is money is garbage.

There are currently 130 Aling Tinderas now around the Philippines, but Medved-Po hopes to see that grow. “It would be great to see Aling Tindera successfully expand around the country to reduce the plastic pollution leaking into nature meaningfully. Our goal is to have an Aling Tindera in every barangay.”

At HOPE, even individuals can support an annual plastic footprint clean-up. “For a Filipino, the annual plastic footprint is 25 kilos. So if you go on our website, you can actually offset your use of plastic for only PhP 550,” Medved-Po explains. “But if someone wants to support, let’s say, offsetting the plastic footprint of an entire village, or if someone wants to clean up one tonne of plastic, they can pledge more. The amount that we collect, we use to pay the hardworking Aling Tinderas who would collect plastic waste to keep it from polluting nature.”

Medved-Po’s efforts now encompass a broader reach through PCX, which focuses on the circularity of the plastic ecosystem on a global scale. “When we found a way [to offset plastic footprint], so many companies asked us to help them find a solution, so we wound up establishing the non-profit PCX,” she says. 

PCX is divided into two: the non-profit PCX Solutions, which deals primarily with policy compliance services and is the gatekeeper of the world’s first plastic offsetting standard, the Plastic Pollution Reduction Standard (PPRS); and the Singapore-based commercial entity PCX Markets, which runs a platform that funds verified plastic clean-up projects globally through the sale of credits. As such, PCX works two ways: on one side, it is a platform where businesses can purchase credits and offset the plastic they can’t yet eliminate; on the other side, it empowers communities with a livelihood based on plastic elimination. 

“At PCX, the team is proud to say it has so far diverted almost 100 million kilos of plastic away from polluting nature,” Medved-Po says.

Fighting against plastic pollution is a mammoth challenge, but Medved-Po is determined to dedicate her time and resources to this cause—and to encourage others from all backgrounds to join her. After all, as she puts it, “this battle requires the participation of all”.

NOW READ

Award-winning philanthropist Nanette Medved-Po on what an incredible force ‘good’ businesses can be

HOPE Founder Nanette Medved-Po Receives the Coveted Asia Game Changer Award

How Asia’s Most Influential women inspire others to follow in their footsteps