Soy sauce refills and reused jars: can Philippines’ tingi culture hold back deluge of plastic waste?
A zero-waste shop set up by a district council provides plastic-free products at affordable prices in a country that gets through 164m sachets a day
Just after classes finish for the day in Malabon City, in the Philippines, a corner shop begins to fill. Mothers arrive with their children, handing over empty bottles to be refilled with soy sauce and cooking oil. Plastic tubs that previously held ice-cream or biscuits are weighed and filled with flour or sugar. The kids get some sweets and banana chips bagged in brown kraft paper.
This store, Tingi Tindahan, offers a different experience from other small independent shops in the country. It retains the accessibility of micro-retail, colloquially known as tingi, while reintroducing reuse and refill methods instead of selling products in sachets and plastic packaging that too quickly becomes discarded waste.
To read the full story from the source: The Guardian – International
