HOW CAN A SHOPPING MALL MANAGE ITS OWN SOLID WASTE AND EVEN MAKE MORE MONEY?

HOW CAN A SHOPPING MALL MANAGE ITS OWN SOLID WASTE AND EVEN MAKE MORE MONEY? 

In many respects, shopping malls are like small cities, especially the bigger malls. They have thousands of people coming in and out every day, restaurants, supermarkets, offices, stores and parking areas. Naturally, they also generate enormous quantities of waste—sometimes perhaps more than a small barangay.

But here is something worth thinking about: if a shopping mall can manage its own solid waste, perhaps even better than a barangay can, why can’t other large institutions do the same?

And if malls can invest in high-end waste management facilities, why not government office complexes, school campuses, hospitals and even military camps?

One particularly interesting example is the partnership between SM Prime Holdings, Inc. and Japanese environmental solutions company GUUN Co., Ltd., which created SM GUUN Environmental Company, Inc. The joint venture operates a waste-processing facility in Consolacion, Cebu, established in 2024. The facility can process around 50 to 75 tons of waste daily. 

This is more than simply collecting garbage and bringing it somewhere else.

The idea is to move from a “pay-to-haul” mentality to a circular economy, where waste becomes a resource. Recyclables can be recovered and sold. Non-recyclable residuals can be processed into “fluff fuel” or refuse-derived fuel for industrial use. Food waste can be processed into soil-enhancing material. SM says its 2025 operations achieved an 80% diversion rate for non-hazardous waste, with its GUUN facility processing portions of residual and compostable waste.

This raises an interesting business question: Why should waste always be an expense? Why can’t it also become a source of income?

A mall could sell baled cardboard, aluminum and other recyclables directly to processors. It could process food waste into compost or soil conditioner. It could even charge tenants a centralized waste-management fee while recovering the commercial value of recyclable materials.

There are also savings from avoiding hauling and landfill costs.

Of course, this requires investment, disciplined segregation at source, proper facilities and reliable markets for recovered materials. The last point is especially important. SM GUUN itself has emphasized that developing end markets for recovered materials remains a major challenge in Asia. 

The opportunity is becoming even more important because the Extended Producer Responsibility Act of 2022 requires covered enterprises to progressively recover their plastic packaging footprint—60% in 2026, 70% in 2027 and 80% beginning 2028. 

So perhaps the bigger question is not merely “How do we dispose of our garbage?”

It should be: “How do we turn our garbage into an economic resource?”

If shopping malls can create their own pockets of success, why not the government?

Could every large government complex have its own mini-MRF? Could universities process their food waste? Could military camps recover recyclables and generate compost? Could public markets turn their enormous biodegradable waste stream into fertilizer?

We may never solve the country's waste problem in one grand project.

But perhaps we don't have to.

Why not create many pockets of success—one mall, one school, one government complex, one military camp, one barangay at a time?

Waste management should not always be a cost center.

If we manage waste properly, it can become a resource center—and perhaps even a revenue center.

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres  iseneres@yahoo.com  senseneres.blogspot.com  09088877282/08-25-2027