Philippines deploys river rangers in battle against plastic
Using a long-handled net, Ronnel Narvas scoops up discarded plastic soft drink bottles, shopping bags and palm-sized sachets as he wades through a foul-smelling tributary in the Philippine capital Manila.
Narvas, 30, is one of more than a thousand rangers employed by the government to clean up the city's waterways, where tonnes of rubbish end up every year.
"It's disappointing, because no matter how diligent we are at cleaning up, the garbage does not run out," Narvas told AFP of the never-ending battle against trash.
"But we need to persevere... at least we are managing to reduce it instead of letting it pile up more."
Inadequate garbage collection services, lack of disposal and recycling facilities, and grinding poverty have been blamed for the growing problem of plastic waste across the country.
The Philippines produces about 61,000 tonnes of trash every day, up to 24 percent of it plastic, figures from the environment department show.
The country is the world's top source of plastic that ends up in the oceans, a 2021 study by Dutch non-profit The Ocean Cleanup found.
It said the Pasig river, which flows through the capital and into Manila Bay, is the "most polluting" in the world.
Inadequate garbage collection services, lack of disposal and recycling facilities, and grinding poverty have been blamed for the growing problem of plastic waste across the Philippines.
In Manila, where more than 14 million people live, only 60 percent of rubbish is collected, sorted and recycled daily, according to a 2022 World Bank report.