Meet These 7 Power Women Who Solve The Plastic Pollution Crisis. #6 Aling Marvy

Aling Marvy and her husband Joseph have helped their community–Barangay Duquit, Mabalacat, Pampanga–earn more revenue. At the age of 40, Aling Marvy is a waste segregator in the transfer station of her barangay and one of the many Aling Tinderas who work with HOPE: Business for Good , PCX ’s partner.?

The Aling Tindera program has several goals that all ultimately aim to simultaneously benefit the community in which it is established, and improve waste management. Specifically, the program aims to provide an avenue where people can monetize their plastic waste. Turning trash to cash is something so commonplace when it comes to paper or metal, however only recently applied to plastic. Aling Tindera also instills discipline in the community, specifically in regards to the treatment of post-consumer plastic. By incentivizing the practice, there is reduced leakage of plastic waste into the environment. Both economic and environmental benefits are able to be attained, and the community is then more knowledgeable about the benefits of the proper waste management processes.?

Her husband Joseph is the president of the waste collection cooperative of around 40 people. He helps Aling Marvy in supporting the community by putting a price on plastics, especially those types that aren’t typically accepted by junk shops like soft plastic.

Working together, Aling Marvy and Joseph gain an additional income to serve for themselves and their two children.?

PCX’s partner, HOPE, launched the Aling Tindera Waste-to-Cash program in 2020 and has set up more than 100 sites across the Philippines since then. This program empowers women to become champions of sustainability in their communities by providing collection points for post-consumer plastic waste that allow for the aggregating, storing, and efficient transportation to partner processing facilities that will ensure plastic does not wind up in nature but reenters the circular economy.