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The Philippines
This Week in AsiaHealth & Environment

Australian entrepreneur hailed for cleaning Philippines’ trash-strewn river – but will it last?

  • Zero Co’s Mike Smith and his team of volunteers went viral after they scooped up 147,000kg of garbage from the Taguig-Pateros River
  • While environmentalists welcomed the initiative, they said it failed to get to the bottom of the waste management problem and questioned its long-term sustainability

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Australian entrepreneur Mike Smith picks up trash in the waste-filled Taguig-Pateros River that runs south of Metro Manila. Photo: Mike Smith/Zero Co
Sam Beltran
An Australian start-up founder behind a massive cleaning operation in one of the Philippines’ most polluted rivers has won plaudits for his work that environmentalists say may help in raising green awareness, but it did not address the root of the problem plaguing the country’s rubbish-choked waterways.

Mike Smith of Zero Co recently mobilised a team of more than 250 environmental rangers and volunteers to clean up a portion of the Taguig-Pateros River located south of Metro Manila, dredging up 147,000kg of garbage from the waters, mostly plastic.

Zero Co, which offers body and household care products in single-use plastic-free packaging made from recycled ocean plastic waste, initially started removing trash on Australian beaches such as Queensland K’gari Island.

The company later extended its project to Java and Bali in Indonesia, and it also collected 18,000kg of waste from a stretch of the Nile River in Egypt.

Smith said a portion of Zero Co’s profits funds clean-up operations around waterways polluted with marine plastic waste.

According to the Philippines’ Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the country was the third-largest source of ocean waste worldwide, prompting Smith to roll out longer-term campaigns to revive Manila’s waterbodies.

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