The World Bank has set its planned financing at $350 million for a Philippine project aimed at addressing plastic waste in Metro Manila.

The forthcoming loan from the World Bank Group’s (WBG) International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) would cover more than a third of the $1.072-billion total operation cost of the Clean Metro Manila project, according to a project information document (PID) dated Feb. 3. The IBRD is the WBG’s lending arm for developing countries like the Philippines.

As Manila Bulletin reported earlier, the World Bank is targeting loan approval on Nov. 27, 2026.

To be jointly implemented by the departments of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) as well as the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), the project aims to “improve solid waste management, including reducing plastic pollution in selected local government units (LGUs) across the National Capital Region (NCR) of the Philippines.”

The bulk of the project’s financing will be shouldered by LGUs—specifically provincial and city governments, as well as congressional districts—which are expected to cover $553.22 million of the total funding requirement.

The national government (NG), meanwhile, will allocate $169.16 million from the annual national budget for the project. In total, Philippine counterpart funding will amount to $722.38 million, more than double the planned World Bank investment project financing (IPF).

According to an earlier concept environmental and social review summary (ESRS) disclosed by the World Bank last January, the first phase of the Clean Philippines multiphase programmatic approach will cover Metro Manila, encompassing all 17 LGUs in the capital region, and will be led by the MMDA with support from the DENR and the DILG.

Last year, Manila Bulletin reported that former finance secretary Ralph G. Recto signed the agreement in October 2025 for a $2-million World Bank grant for the Clean Philippines multiphase approach (phase one) project.

The grant financing was drawn from the Grant Facility for Project Preparation, jointly administered by the IBRD and the WBG’s International Development Association (IDA), which lends to the world’s poorest countries.

The Clean Metro Manila project will focus on strengthening policies and institutions, improving local service delivery and waste infrastructure, advancing plastic waste management for a circular economy, and promoting innovation and public awareness to reduce plastic pollution in the NCR, the World Bank had said.

The lender had noted that Metro Manila is “one of the country’s solid waste management hotspots.”

“Solid waste management issues in the country and in Metro Manila show a distinctive pattern: increasing waste volumes projected at 23.6 million tons by 2025, especially organic waste and plastics; poor waste disposal methods; declining waste management capacities; and low plastic processing capacity,” it had said.

The World Bank had also noted that solid waste management infrastructure investments in Philippine urban areas face major challenges due to land shortages, health and safety risks in blighted communities, and differing fiscal priorities among LGUs.

While informal waste workers (IWWs) divert about 32 percent of plastics and other recyclable materials from landfills, they remain marginalized in solid waste management planning, as barangays—tasked with waste collection—are constrained by limited funding and a lack of collection trucks, leaving informal settlements only partly served by waste services, the lender had said.

Last December, the World Bank reported that the Philippines is among the world’s leading contributors to marine plastic pollution, with nearly nine percent of its mismanaged plastic waste ending up in the ocean each year.