Soy sauce refills and reused jars: can Philippinesâ 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
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.
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