It should, actually, be considered staggeringly sad that the Philippines produces 27,397 tons of garbage on a daily basis (with almost one-third of that coming from Metro Manila, and an estimated 2.41 million tons of the total garbage collected classified as toxic/hazardous wastes from some 100,000 industrial/commercial sector players), costing the government about $1.5 billion per year for solid waste management alone, on top of another approximately $3 billion more spent for both water and air pollution management efforts.


But, proving the saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, the Integrated Recycling Industries (IRI) proves by its very existence that, yes, promoting green can be profitable. “Since the start of its operations in 2002, (IRI) has always been practicing environment friendly processes,” says Lee Salvatore R. Echiverri, IRI vice president and general manager. All in the hopes of “the management of IRI to contribute to the environment by minimizing the amount of wastes disposed to landfills through (the implementation of) good practices in recycling and wastes handling.”

Starting a Practice

IRI was established as a trading office in 1993, as some sort of a junkshop, buying production scrap and rejects from the semiconductor industry and then exporting these to proccessors overseas, where precious and ferrous metals were extracted from the materials. By end-2000, “IRI was incorporated as a new Philippine corporation, an incorporation (that) saw the dynamic fusion of foreign financial and technological resources, and Filipino talent. Henceforth, IRI went full speed ahead in working towards becoming a world-class and leading recycling and reclamation facility,” Echiverri says, adding that by January 2001, IRI was already registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA).

After IRI realized the “difficulties inherent in exporting scrap materials, specifically those that are hazardous in nature, from the Philippines to other countries, as well as in compliance with the Basel Convention and other international protocols, IRI eventually decided to put up a central treating facility, (responding to the needs of the) Philippines' semiconductor and electronic industries.” That was in 2002, soon after the completion of its Building A, which houses the offices and crushing facilities, when IRI started commercial operations, servicing the waste disposal requirements of multinational companies, including Intel Philippines Mfg. Co., Philips Semiconductor, and Amkor Technologies Inc. IRI then became the first and only company in the Philippines specializing in the recycling and reclamation of non-ferrous and precious metals from electronic production rejects, computer parts, and telecommunication equipment, aside from engaging in the trading of nonferrous and precious metals, as well as recycled plastic materials.

The year 2002 was also when IRI, after becoming a member of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI), was awarded two significant certifications: ISO 14001:1996, and ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Exceeding Expectations

Even as early as its first year, operations were profitable, exceeding breakeven expectations. In fact, from January 2002 to January 2003, IRI's number of customers increased from only less than 20 to well over 40, a development that warranted its expansion by the end of January 2003, IRI’s Buildings and 3, as well as its metal recovery system were completed, “making it a fully integrated recycling company, a total environment company,” Echiverri says.

By then, IRI’s accreditations that prove its world class standards of excellence include, aside from the two ISOs, the OHSAS 18001:1999 for occupational health and safety management system; as well as membership in the International Association of Electronic Recyclers (IAER).

Happy Outputs

Already, there’s the recognition that IRI has been helping its clients reduce their environmental impacts by lessening the amount of wastes dumped in landfills and as more wastes are recycled, more natural resources are preserved,” says Echiverri, who believes that the positive responses they get may also be because “aside from being able to contribute to the preservation of the natural resources by sending their recyclable scrap materials to IRI, our customers also get profit out of them (as) their scrap materials are bought by IRI from them at very competitive prices.” Echiverri adds: “We believe that companies should turn green in order to be sustainable. Natural resources are finite, and by saving/conserving on the natural resources, we are able extend the available resources to the future generations.” As such, “IRI will continue to preach environmental awareness, and add capabilities to handle more hazardous materials.”