Learning from the field: practical and technical learnings in implementing a national research and training program for quantifying and classifying marine plastics pollution in the Philippines

The Philippines has consistently been identified in recent reports as one of the top contributor countries of plastics in the world’s oceans. Unfortunately, the lack of empirical data on the volume and variety of actual plastics in the field makes it difficult to confirm or challenge these estimates. In 2022, the nationally-funded project PlastiCount Pilipinas: Counting and Visualizing Marine Plastics Pollution in the Philippines was launched to develop a technology that will produce empirical data and increase local capacity for monitoring plastics pollution in marine environments. PlastiCount Pilipinas has been immensely successful in achieving its objectives, even going above and beyond its initial goals by accomplishing landmark outputs that include, among others, launching its website (www.plasticount.ph) as the first information hub for plastics research in the Philippines, and establishing two fully operational facilities for processing samples and surveys for micro- and macroplastics analysis. Many of these successes, however, have been marred with procedural and technical obstructions that gave rise to delays and the need to re-design some approaches and protocols so the project can move forward. In this note, we detail some important practical and technical learnings and realizations in implementing the PlastiCount Pilipinas project. Based on the project’s experience, we also highlight several specific examples of issues or challenges that can arise in implementing similar projects with comparable scope and scale, and suggest practical ways to address and circumvent these obstructions.