EDITORIAL: Turning Tides

THE year 2025 has weighed heavily on the global conscience. Climate disasters have grown more frequent and more destructive. Conflict and injustice continue to displace lives and strain already fragile systems.

For many communities, especially in the Global South, these crises are no longer abstract—they are daily realities. In moments like these, the temptation is to feel powerless, to believe that individual action no longer matters against problems of such scale.

But this year has also told a different story—one that deserves to be heard, amplified, and acted upon.

Across continents, individuals and businesses in the Global North chose to stand in solidarity with collector communities in the Global South, where waste management systems are weak and survival is often a daily struggle. That choice mattered.

Together, they stopped more than 1.3 billion plastic bottles from ending up in oceans and waterways across five countries. More importantly, they helped over 27,000 waste collectors earn steady income—restoring not just livelihoods, but dignity and opportunity.

This is what real climate action looks like: measurable, human-centered, and rooted in shared responsibility.

The fight against plastic pollution, particularly in our oceans, is not only an environmental issue. It is a social justice issue. Plastic waste chokes marine life, contaminates food chains, and devastates coastal economies—many of them in regions like Bicol, where communities depend on the sea for sustenance and livelihood.

Yet the same waste, when properly collected and valued, can become a source of income and empowerment rather than destruction.

Encouragingly, the impact has reached our own region. More than 140 schools in Indonesia and the Philippines have been empowered with recycling facilities and environmental education.

These schools are raising a generation that understands that waste is not merely something to discard, but something to manage responsibly. This is hope made visible—hope that is taught, practiced, and passed on.

At Bicol Mail, advocacy is not an afterthought; it is a responsibility. As a community newspaper, we believe that information should move people—not just to awareness, but to action.

The campaign against plastic proliferation, especially in our oceans, is one that demands the participation of everyone: households, schools, barangays, businesses, and local governments.

No one is coming to fix this problem for us. Waiting for perfect systems or sweeping policies while plastic continues to flood our seas is no longer an option. What we can do—today—is reduce single-use plastics, support recycling initiatives, segregate waste properly, and back programs that turn plastic waste into economic opportunity. Communities can organize clean-up drives. Schools can strengthen environmental education.

Local leaders can champion ordinances that favor sustainability over convenience.

As the year draws to a close, the lesson is clear: change does not begin with grand declarations—it begins with collective choice. When people choose action, change happens. Plastic waste can become worth. Communities can thrive instead of struggle.

The tide can still be turned. But only if we all choose to push—together.