SM Cares, the corporate social responsibility arm of SM Supermalls, recently added SM Telabastagan and SM Pampanga to the growing list of SM malls that are part of its Plastic Waste Collection Program.
Customers from nearby communities may now drop off their clean and dry plastic waste at Parking D, near the SM Store Entrance in SM Telabastagan, or near the steel deck parking in SM Pampanga, every day from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Plastic materials such as PET bottles, grocery bags, e-commerce pouches, food containers, dishware, plastic utensils, and alike are accepted, except for PVC pipes.
Launched in 2021 in partnership with Plastic Credit Exchange (PCEx), SM Cares’ Plastic Waste Collection Program promotes responsible and proper plastic waste disposal by making plastic waste collection points accessible for everyone. With this, SM continuously expands its plastic waste collection to more SM malls nationwide.
Since its launch, the program so far has collected 14,436.25 kgs of plastics, equivalent to 23,416.641 kgs of carbon dioxide (CO2). This in turn is equivalent to: 93,543.12 km driven by an average passenger vehicle; 2,848,462 smartphones charged; 8.1 tons of waste recycled; 1.2 garbage trucks of waste recycled; 1,1014 trash bags of waste recycled; 888 incandescent lamps switched to LEDs; or 387 tree seedlings grown for 10 years.