SMC volunteers to join 15 sites nationwide for International Coastal Cleanup Day
Metro Manila, Philippines - Hundreds of San Miguel Corp. (SMC) volunteers will join cleanup drives at 15 sites across the country this weekend to mark International Coastal Cleanup Day, in line with the company’s ongoing initiative to clear rivers and waterways of waste.
This year, SMC’s Team Malasakit employee-volunteers are targeting to conduct 55 coastal cleanups in all, following last year’s record collection of 36.3 metric tons of mostly plastic waste. In 2023, 29 tons of coastal garbage were collected across 23 sites.
This weekend’s coastal cleanups, which are also part of the company’s celebration of its 135th anniversary this September, will mobilize employee-volunteer brigades across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Its largest site, at the Manila Bay, will see an estimated 800 volunteers who will converge and start their cleanup at 6:00 am. Similar activities will be held in four other coastal sites in Luzon and five each in Visayas and Mindanao.
“Protecting our bodies of water has long been a major advocacy of San Miguel. I’m glad that this has become ingrained in our company culture that our employees nationwide are volunteering by the thousands, and getting personally involved,” said Ramon S. Ang, SMC Chairman and CEO.
As a head start, SMC already held cleanup drives last September 13 in 10 coastal and riverside locations, including Bataan, Batangas, Laguna, Quezon province, and Camarines Sur in Luzon, and one in Malita, Davao in Mindanao.
This weekend, the coastal cleanups will cover the following: Luzon – Sual and Lingayen in Pangasinan; Sta. Rosa, Laguna; Mariveles, Bataan; and Masinloc, Zambales; Visayas — Corden, Iloilo; Bacolod, Negros Occidental; Tabongo, Leyte; and Mandaue, Cebu; Mindanao — Pitogo, Zamboanga, Davao del Sur; Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental; and Malita, Davao.
SMC’s Team Malasakit volunteers will be scouring the coastlines for plastic packaging, discarded fishing nets and sachets, to cigarette butts, rubber, and even household appliances, while also fulfilling the critical task of sorting, weighing, and recording collected debris to help determine the country’s ecological footprint.
With 17 more coastal sites to be scheduled soon, SMC’s cleanup drives also become a rallying point for behavioral change in the concerned communities, raising awareness on ocean degradation and the need for proper waste management.
The initiative is part of the San Miguel Group’s larger sustainability commitment, and aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 13 on Climate Action, and SDG 14 on Life Below Water.
It also lines up with SMC’s five-year-old flood mitigation and river rehabilitation program called Better Rivers PH, which has cleared more than 8.6 million metric tons of silt and waste from 164 kilometers of river channels in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.
By expanding the rainwater-carrying capacity of these rivers, the program has helped reduce the impacts of flooding by allowing water to recede faster in affected communities.
