The goal of our innovation is to engage with civil society, businesses, and government to highlight our collective action towards combating plastic pollution. With this hybrid approach, we highlight three main strategies: (1) Network Building (in Businesses), (2) Policymaking (in the Local Government), and (3) Community Prototyping (with the Civil Society). In this way, we empower each sector to commit towards a sustainable and zero-waste society.  With this scalable, tangible, and replicable innovation, we hope to contribute to ending plastic pollution.

Network Building

• Involve businesses in Samal Island (e.g., beach resorts, restaurants, and other establishments) to shift to sustainable alternatives by evaluating them through our developed toolkit and to creating a geo-mapping to promote their enterprises.
• At least a minimum of 100 businesses in each three Barangays will be part of this network and those that are part of this network will form and continue the network.\
  

Community Prototyping

• Involve local communities in Samal Island to co-create a “Wala Usik” or Zero-Waste stores that would produce sustainable alternatives to plastics. 
• Easier for our partners to come on board since this station is non-obtrusive and does not require much effort on their end (and the local ordinance to Ban single-use plastics will take effect to them, allowing them to participate by providing sustainable alternatives on a grassroots level). 
• Serves as an incubation opportunity for partner innovators at DOST Project to improve the product over time and introduce other iterations.

Policymaking

• Involve the Local Government Unit to implement legislations towards banning Single-Use Plastics to systematically address plastic pollution and promote sustainable alternatives supported by the Business Network and Communities.
• Create a multi-stakeholder representation on the creation of the local ordinance (e.g., Basureros/Waste Collectors, Junkshops operators, businesses, vendor and wet market associations, local communities, etc.) especially those that may be impacted by the said ordinance. 

With the realities at hand, we hope to respond to it by having our innovation “SAMAL: Sustainable Advocacy in Making Samal A plastic-free isLand” which aims to engage the civil society, businesses, and government to highlight our collective action towards ending plastic pollution. With this hybrid approach, we empower each sector to commit to a sustainable and zero-waste society.

Our impact is simple: to make Samal, a plastic-free Island, through a holistic and collaborative end-to-end approach. Together, let’s end plastic pollution.

Overall, the main goal of this innovation is to make sure that everyone is included and has a part in this innovation: the local ordinance to ban single-use plastics will be supported by both the Business Network and our partnered Communities with their prototypes, highlighting the importance of a hybrid-end-to-end holistic and collaborative action towards ending plastic pollution.

From the partner local stores and organization, DYESABEL inc. will buy materials/products in bulk. A 10%-20% Markup price will be applied during distribution to Wala-Usik Store will retail the products and give discounts to customers who will bring their own reusable container when buying.

DYESABEL Inc. will purchase materials and products in bulk from local partner stores at a lower price and then distribute it to designated stores per barangay with an increase in the price by 10%-20%, which we will collect as profit.

The table illustrates that DYESABEL will partner/open 15 stores per month and will double every month. Assuming that there will be a P5,000.00 conservative profit from one store per month, it will be equal to P75,000.The number of stores is directly proportional to the profit that we will gain. Thus, we are expecting that on the fourth month, we will have around 120 stores that could generate P300,000.00 profit. It will be used to roll-out community prototyping on other nearby coastal communities.

Phase 1 (Connect):  Sustainable Business Network

1. 100 businesses per Barangay to pilot the evaluation (if aligned to RA 9003, UN SDGs, and eco-tourism) to at least 50% of the businesses resorts, Sari-sari stores, coffee shops, etc.
2. Certification and Geo-mapping to promote their enterprises;
3. Eco-tourism and education campaigns (to sustain, partner with government agencies; to hire environmental guide);

Phase 2 (Create): Community Prototyping

1. DYESABEL will establish three sari-sari stores per barangay.
2. DYESABEL will partner with local businesses and organizations that can provide bulk materials or products for the sari-sari stores
3. Incentive System/Discounts will be given to consumers that will re-use and bring their own container when buying products
4. Organize Educational Campaigns in Schools and Barangays

Phase 3 (Collaborate):  Policy-Making Advocacy

1. DYESABEL will lobby the banning of single-use plastic in Samal
2. To promote the DYESABEL’s “Wala-Usik” stores, we will also lobby the recognition of eco-friendly stores like ours
   c. Normalize re-using of container when buying from a local store through the influence of the said legal rules

DYESABEL intends to invest in its community partners as they play a vital role in the implementation of our zero waste initiative in Samal.

We will invest Php 500,000 bulk purchases of refillery materials and capacity trainings of our community partners as they transition to zero-waste store owners.

Part of the investment will be towards the materials to be used in the stores as well as capital for the products to be purchased in bulk.

For more informations about us :

Ms. Amiel Lopez