SM City Mindpro and ZPPSU Seal Partnership for a Greener Future Through Trash-to-Cash Campaign

Formalizing the partnership between SM City Mindpro and Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University (ZPPSU), a MOA signing was held at the university grounds on October 17 for the Trash-to-Cash Campaign of SM.

Strengthening its commitment to sustainability and environmental stewardship, SM City Mindpro formalized a partnership with the Zamboanga Peninsula Polytechnic State University (ZPPSU) through a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signing held on October 17, 2025 at the university grounds.

 

The collaboration underscores the shared advocacy of both institutions to promote environmental awareness and proper waste management practices through SM’s Trash-to-Cash Recycling Market, a long-running sustainability initiative that encourages waste segregation and recycling among communities. 

Leading the ceremony were Dr. Nelson Cabral, University President of ZPPSU, and Engr. Rommel Bellen, Assistant Mall Manager of SM City Mindpro, who represented the mall’s management team.

 

In his message, Engr. Bellen emphasized the importance of empowering young people to take the lead in driving environmental change.

“By joining hands with ZPPSU, we are empowering the next generation of changemakers: students, educators, and future innovators – to lead the way toward a cleaner, greener Zamboanga,” Bellen said. “This partnership reminds us that environmental stewardship thrives when everyone takes part – the government, private sector, academe, and the community. Together, we can create ripples of change that reach far beyond the walls of our campus and our mall,” he added. 

The partnership aims to engage the university community in SM’s Trash-to-Cash initiative by promoting recycling practices, setting up collection points, and integrating sustainability into student-led activities and projects. Through this collaboration, SM City Mindpro and ZPPSU hope to inspire lasting behavioral change among the youth while reducing the city’s solid waste footprint.

 

The Trash-to-Cash Recycling Market is a nationwide environmental program of SM Supermalls held every first Friday and Saturday of the month. It provides customers and partner institutions a convenient venue to exchange recyclable waste materials such as papers, plastics, and metals for cash, promoting responsible waste disposal and circular economy principles.

This partnership marks another milestone in SM Cares’ initiative, reinforcing the company’s role as a catalyst for positive environmental impact and community collaboration.

With collective efforts between SM City Mindpro and ZPPSU, a more sustainable and eco-conscious Zamboanga Peninsula is within reach – one recyclable at a time.

It is time to turn that TRASH TO CASH at SM City Mindpro

With the threat of COVID-19, most of our time now is spent doing our daily routines and activities within the corners of our homes resulting to trashes which accumulate easily. Here's more reason to declutter your home: You can earn from the SM’s Trash-To-Cash recycling market! This is the perfect time to turn the trash lying around your home into cash!

 

Trash-to-Cash is SM’s long-running environmental initiative aimed at educating the community to recycle, dispose of their trash properly, and earn in the process. Launched in 2007, the program is part of the company’s efforts in compliance with Republic Act No. 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Program.

 

SM City Mindpro’s recycling market successfully launched its first run of the program and will continue every first Friday and Saturday of the month. The next schedule of this activity will be on September 3-4, 2021 at 10:00AM to 02:00 PM located in the tricycle bay area at the ground level carpark building. The accepted wastes include plastic and PET bottles, newspapers, cardboards, metal, tin and aluminum, as well as cookware and kitchen items.

 

Under the program, SM also involves its partner affiliates and tenants. Part of this is the buyout of their used cooking oil, which also complies with government policies on the responsible disposal of hazardous waste, as well as encouraging them to dispose of their unusable or broken light bulbs through the program, to name a few.

 

“This is the perfect time to remember our collective responsibility to the environment. Being eco-responsible is the best gift that we can ever give to Mother Nature, which is why we urge everyone to look at sustainable ways to get rid of their solid waste, such as our Trash-to-Cash market,” said Engr. Liza B. Silerio, SM’s Vice President on Corporate Compliance and Head of SM Sustainability and Environment Program.

 

SM Cares is the corporate social responsibility arm of SM Supermalls, which spearheads programs focusing on social inclusion and care for the environment. In addition to its eco-centric programs, SM Cares’ advocacies include programs on women and breastfeeding mothers, persons with disabilities, senior citizens, children and youth, and the creation of bike-friendly SM Malls across the country.

 

For more information on guidelines and other activities, visit and follow @smcitymindpro on Facebook. (SM PR)