In Her Own Words: Nanette Medved-Po on Creating Solutions to Plastic Pollution

For Nanette Medved-Po, real hope begins by creating systemic change and trying to effect that change at scale. “It’s starting to happen.”

Twelve years ago, I set up a company selling “Hope in a Bottle” branded water in the Philippines, not because I wanted to build a beverage business, but because I wanted to make a point. I wanted to show that a company that invests in social good would be supported by the public. And I believed that businesses that not only focused on shareholders, but rather all stakeholders could be the incredible force for good that the world desperately needs.  

I started with education because I believe that investing in people gives you the best return on investment. Selling bottled water wasn’t just about water; it was about classrooms. We made it simple: buy water, build classrooms. 

But as HOPE grew, I had another realization. I was trying to solve one problem in education, but I was contributing to another: plastic pollution. 

The Philippines is the third worst offender for ocean plastic pollution. Half of the top 10 countries contributing to plastic leakage into rivers and seas are in Southeast Asia. The Philippines alone consumes over 2.15 million metric tons of plastic each year, yet only nine percent of that is recycled, while 35 percent makes its way into the environment.

The move by consumer goods companies to package products in small plastic sachets, while making essentials more affordable for lower-income populations, has also resulted in an explosion of low-value plastic that is nearly impossible to recycle. Without proper waste management infrastructure and clear government regulation, much of this plastic ends up in waterways and eventually in our oceans. The challenge in emerging markets is not just waste generation, but the severe lack of collection, processing systems, and incentives to manage it.

So, we tried something new. In 2018, HOPE boldly started taking responsibility for our plastic footprint by cleaning up the equivalent of what we were putting out into the market. And in that first year, we hit our target. That was my “aha” moment. If a small company in a low-margin business like ours could do it, then why couldn’t larger companies?

This experiment led to the creation of a nonprofit in 2019, PCX Solutions, that manages the Plastic Pollution Reduction Standard (PPRS) and advises governments on Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) laws. PPRS was the first global standard for plastic pollution reduction, allowing projects combating plastic waste to issue credits under an independent, audited framework, helping companies take real, verifiable action to be plastic-responsible. In 2021, I set up PCX Markets, a plastic credit marketplace that has helped fund the collection and responsible processing of over 120 million kilograms of plastic waste to date. 

This isn’t just about collection; it’s about making sure the plastic doesn’t leak back into nature. And to do that, we needed to bridge funding gaps. In emerging markets, where municipal budgets are stretched thin, waste collection and recycling infrastructure remain grossly underfunded. 

The UN estimates we need to invest USD1.64 trillion to beat plastic pollution by 2040 and the biggest need is in the Global South, which bears the brunt of the crisis. Yet the majority of investments are flowing to developed countries. Emerging markets received only six percent of plastic circularity investments between 2018 and 2023, according to a report by The Circulate Initiative. 

One USD300 plastic credit can fund the cleanup of 330,000 sachets or 66,000 15-gram plastic bottles in developing markets, while creating jobs and channelling badly needed capital into plastic waste management initiatives.  

Plastic credits can also drive social impact. Aling Tindera, a waste-to-cash program we started at HOPE as a proof of concept, provides women entrepreneurs who run small shops with the infrastructure needed to buy and sell plastic waste in their communities. Since its inception, Aling Tindera has grown from four sites to 146 locations, diverting over seven million kilograms of plastic waste from nature while generating over USD300,000 in income for local communities, driving a 48 percent increase in the average annual income of the women at the heart of the program.  

When I first launched HOPE and PCX, some people thought I was crazy. I had no background in consumer goods, no experience in waste management. Maybe I was crazy.  I just thought it was important to try and do something. And I wasn’t alone. I was lucky to find my “HOPE Heroes,” industry veterans who had spent their careers making money for corporations and now wanted to use their skills to create impact. They helped build the foundation of what HOPE and PCX are today.

To me this is about something more important than building a business. It’s about creating systemic change and trying to effect that change at scale, and it’s starting to happen. 

The Philippines passed an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) law, requiring businesses to take responsibility for their plastic waste. The law mandates that companies recover 20 percent of post-consumer plastic waste by 2023, increasing to 80 percent by 2028. The most effective EPR regimes impose strict penalties on polluters, and the Philippines is taking a bold approach; noncompliant companies can face fines of up to 20 million pesos and even business permit suspensions. PCX helped provide the feedback and continues to provide suggestions on how to strengthen these laws.  

As part of the Philippines delegation to the UN Treaty negotiation on plastic pollution, and now as part of the Steering Board of the National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP) Philippines as part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Plastic Action Partnership, I’m grateful to have more opportunities to join conversations on how we can continue to address plastic pollution on a national and global scale. 

Throughout my journey, I’ve had to navigate both corporate boardrooms and grassroots waste collection sites, two very different worlds that need to come together for real progress to happen. I strongly believe that leadership shouldn’t be just about making decisions from the top down; it’s about creating an ecosystem where businesses, communities, and policymakers work together to solve problems.

I hope my work illustrates this. Working with brands and government, HOPE has built almost 150 classrooms, impacting over 45,000 students, many in remote areas. HOPE’s tree-planting initiative, meanwhile, has planted over two million coconut seedlings with smallholder farmers across the Philippines. This effort directly supports rural livelihoods, where 60 percent of smallholder farmers live below the poverty line. These trees will generate long-term income, potentially creating PHP12.5 billion over 50 years, revitalizing the aging coconut industry, which sustains one-third of the country’s population. Beyond economic benefits, these trees should absorb 834,000 tons of carbon dioxide, making a significant contribution to climate action and sustainability.

Likewise, the work at PCX has been all about ecosystems.  By working with legislators, local government units (LGUs), brands, SMEs, the informal waste sector and other stakeholders tackling the plastic pollution problem, we are able to address funding gaps and achieve sustainability goals. 

Companies are now asking PCX for help to do more: to reduce their upstream footprint, to do more to fund recycling infrastructure, which is lacking in most emerging markets, to source recycled plastic from verified sources, so they can increase the recycled content in their products and packaging and cut down on virgin plastic use. We’re co-creating these solutions with members of our ecosystem, which grows wider every day. The shared desire to do more provides me with a continuous source of inspiration and energy.

We are at a turning point. If we do nothing, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean. This is an 80-year-old problem, and virtually all the plastic we’ve created is still here. But that also means we can be the generation that ends it. Businesses have the power to move quickly, faster than governments, faster than global treaties.

If we all take responsibility now, if we work together, we can build a future for our children where no plastic waste ends up in nature. 

That’s the hope. 

By NANETTE MEDVED-PO. Portrait by COLIN DANCEL. Photographs by ADEDOLAPO BOLUWATIFE ABIMBOLA. Edited by Joyce Oreña.