Coprocessing helps tackle plastic problem

THE Philippines is the third largest plastic polluter of the Pacific Ocean, contributing significantly to marine waste. According to a 2021 World Bank report, the Philippines generates an estimated 61,000 metric tons of waste daily with 12 to 24 percent of this is plastic.

A big help toward tackling this seemingly insurmountable problem is coprocessing. The resource recovery group of Republic Cement, ecoloop, reports that it has successfully diverted 21.4 billion plastic sachets in 2023, equivalent to 110,000 metric tons of residual waste used as alternative fuel in the company's coprocessing operations for cement manufacturing.

«This achievement represents a significant amount of waste diverted from landfills and bodies of water [such as] oceans and urban waterways, and further underscores Republic Cement's commitment to environmental stewardship and circular economy principles,» states ecoloop Director Angela Edralin-Valencia.

Ecoloop partner Pilotage sorts residual plastic waste for shredding to prepare it for use as alternative fuel in Republic Cement’s manufacturing process. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

Coprocessing is the reuse or recovery of thermal and mineral properties of qualified waste materials while manufacturing cement in a single combined operation.

Republic Cement further reports that in 2023, it utilizes a total of over 670,000 tons of residual waste in its overall cement manufacturing process, including other alternative fuels such as biomass and refuse-derived fuel. This is the largest amount of residual waste that the company has diverted in a single year since pioneering the use of alternative fuels in the Philippines in the early 2000s.

With its early-adapter partners, ecoloop has pioneered the plastic neutrality program in the Philippines. Many of the country's reputable companies selected Republic Cement to implement their zero-waste to landfill programs, where manufacturing wastes are diverted from landfills for safe and secure disposal via coprocessing.

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