SMC President and CEO Ramon S. Ang said that the company’s Group-wide “Water for All” program saved 7.5 billion liters of scarce water in 2023.

This brings SMC’s total water savings throughout the program’s seven-year run to 41.3 billion liters—equivalent to the monthly consumption of 1.3 million households. 

Ang also reported on the progress of another major water initiative: As of March 21, its river rehabilitation project had removed a total of 5.5 million metric tons of silt and solid wastes from 85 kilometers of waterways. These include the Tullahan River, Pasig River, San Juan River, and Bulacan rivers, as well as rivers in Laguna and Navotas. 

“Water issues have long been a major priority for us. Our latest internal Group water savings report, together with our ongoing river cleanup initiatives, are a strong affirmation of San Miguel’s commitment when it comes to the protection, preservation, and enhancement of our water resources,” said Ang.

“Our employees have played a critical role in achieving these results. We are grateful to them for fully adopting and taking to heart our water sustainability advocacies, particularly the reduction of our use of scarce water sources, and parallel to that, the rehabilitation of polluted rivers, to also help flood mitigation,” he added.

According to Ang, the company’s internal water savings come mostly from increased utilization of non-scarce water sources such as seawater, recycled water, and rainwater.

“In the past couple of years, our businesses have really stepped up when it comes to investing in water-saving measures. From fixing leaks, installing new meters, and replacing old pipes; to installing rainwater harvesting facilities, utilizing more efficient water recycling and reuse systems, to investments in advanced technologies such as desalination: Every drop counts, so every little effort of our employees, counts,” Ang added.

SMC fuel and oils subsidiary Petron Corporation continued to account for the bulk of scarce water savings, through its use of a water desalination facility. 

Petron’s total water savings for 2023 reached 3.5 billion liters, bringing its seven-year total to 20.8 billion liters. San Miguel Global Power came in at second, with 1.3 billion liters of scarce water saved for the year, bringing its total to 6.1 billion liters. At third was Spirits unit Ginebra San Miguel Inc., which logged nearly 1.2 billion liters of water saved, for a total of 5.9 billion liters since 2017. 

Other subsidiaries including San Miguel Foods, San Miguel Brewery Inc., San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp., SMC Infrastructure, Northern Cement Corp., and San Miguel Properties, in no particular order, also contributed to total water savings. 

Since its launch in 2017, SMC’s Water for All program has expanded to include newer facilities built in recent years. To date, it monitors the water use of 96 SMC facilities, offices, and installations nationwide.

The year “Water for All” was launched, SMC also announced the discontinuation of its plastic bottled water business. 

At the time, Ang noted that while its plastic bottled water business was providing good returns, its discontinuation was part of SMC’s push for greater sustainability, particularly through minimizing plastic wastes that end up on bodies of water. 

Three years later, in 2020, SMC began its massive river cleanup program, which started with its P1-billion initiative to clean up the Tullahan River. The inititive led to the removal of some 1.1 million tons of waste from an 11-kilometer stretch of that river.

SMC then took on the more difficult challenge of cleaning up the Pasig River starting in 2021, for which it spent another P2 billion. 

Last year, the company completed its cleanup of the Pasig River where it removed nearly 1.2 million metric tons of silt and waste. 

The project has since moved to Bulacan province, where many low-lying towns are perennially flooded during the rainy season, due in large part to clogged rivers that prevent the flow of floodwaters out to the Manila Bay. 

SMC’s Bulacan river cleanup efforts have cleared 2.6 million tons of silt and wastes from the Marilao River, Giuguinto River, and Pamarawan River in the province.

San Miguel Corporation’s (SMC) packaging unit San Miguel Yamamura Packaging Corp. has signed on to boost Quezon City’s trash-to-cashback program to help divert garbage away from landfills and, together with waste solutions and technology partners, is eyeing to expand the program to Metro Manila and nearby provinces. 

SMC President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon S. Ang said that SMYPC is joining the program to lend its expertise on circular economy—in particular, recycling of glass, which had been the missing component of the ongoing initiative.  

The “Trash-to-Cashback” program, implemented by the QC Government in partnership with waste management solutions firm Basic Environmental Systems and Technologies, Inc. (BEST, Inc.) and technology partner BXTRA Philippines (bXTRA), utilizes the firms’ “My Basurero” app which accepts requests for waste collection, including recyclables.  

It encourages citizens to be more conscientious about waste segregation. Through the program, they are able to exchange their recyclables and single-use plastics for “environmental points’ which they can use to pay for utility bills such as electricity, water, and internet services through the Bayad App; avail grocery items through the Trash to Cashback Mart, and order food deliveries from the partner merchants. 

QC Mayor Joy Belmonte and Vice Mayor Gian Sotto, along with QC Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Department Head Andrea Villaroman, welcomed the addition of SMYPC as a partner to the program. 

“We are honored to be welcomed by the QC local government as a partner in this important and truly innovative project that teaches and incentivizes citizens to minimize their impact on the environment, and segregating their household wastes,” said Ang.  

“I’m more than confident that SMYPC’s world-class expertise and long experience in zero-waste or circular economy practices will contribute significantly to the realization of our shared goal of addressing solid waste pollution, and promoting sustainability in our communities,” he added. 

While the program had been making headway in the recovery of recyclables and single-use plastics, it had not been able to include glass wastes in its collection as there was previously no partner that could process the materials properly and sustainably. 

SMYPC is now on board and has committed to purchase all glass and cullet to be collected, which it will then recycle and make into new glass products. SMYPC’s glass business uses a significant percentage of recycled glass in its manufacturing line.  

“Glass will not decompose if left in landfills, but it is highly recyclable and can actually be reused endlessly without any adverse effects on quality or safety. Producing glass products using recycled material also uses up significantly less energy. It’s a system that benefits all, and the only challenge is making sure we are able to collect as many used glass materials as we can,” Ang continued.  

Glass produced from recycled material also reduces related air pollution by 20% and related water pollution by as much as 50%, according to the World Wildlife Fund for Nature. 

Ang said that already, SMYPC, BEST, Inc. and bXTRA are in talks with several Metro Manila LGUs to implement the trash-for-cash and glass collection program in other cities “very soon.”  

“We are grateful to SMYPC for partnering with us on this major expansion for our organization. Glass is among the most common packaging material out there, and with their help, we will be able to recycle a larger volume of it,” said Jan-Vincent Mercado, Senior Vice President for Business Development of BEST, Inc. 

“The circular economy is here and now, and we are glad to be working with a company like SMYPC who is not just a large player in the industry, but is among the first movers in sustainable practices for packaging.” Mercado added. 

Ang continued: “Recycling and reusing materials have been ingrained in SMYPC from the very beginning. Through the years, we’ve been an active partner in materials recovery—from setting up our own collection hubs and working with many LGUs and like-minded organizations to divert as much recyclable material as we can from landfills.”  

“This also aligns with our larger sustainability goals focused on, among other things, water sustainability, solid waste management. By helping encourage waste segregation and proper disposal, we will also minimize the garbage that ends up in our critical water sources and other bodies of water,” Ang said. 

In 2017, Ang announced the discontinuation of SMC’s plastic bottled water business to demonstrate its commitment to help reduce the world’s ocean plastics. Today, SMC is spending some P3 billion to dredge and clean-up the Pasig River and Tullahan River system to mitigate flooding and help boost biodiversity. It is also eyeing to implement wide-scale river cleanups for the flood-prone province of Bulacan. 

For its part, SMYPC has been implementing its “Balik Bote” program for more than a decade at its facilities, host communities, and in public schools near their areas of operation. The program will enable it to significantly widen its area of coverage, particularly with the planned expansion to other cities and provinces.  

SMYPC added that its joining the program is also timely as 2022 is the International Year of Glass (IYOG 2022) and that the United Nations has declared to “promote glass as an important, inspirational and versatile platform to address some of the greatest challenges the world faces in ensuring sustainable development and life quality improvement everywhere, especially in the developing world”.  

The company said it has taken the lead in observing IYOG 2022 in the Philippines.