[feitingen]

This is the reason. By far, most people in the Philippines live in poverty and anything affordable to poor people comein plastic sachets.

Instant coffee, shampoo, detergent, soap, almost everything is most affordable in a plastic sachet, and usually in very small amounts.

The detergent is enough for two small loads of laundry, the shampoo for two or three showers, etc.

This is combined with virtually no garbage handling, and often where there is garbage collection, it usually goes to landfills which are close to the sea and "leaks" plastic to the sea every time it rains or the wind blows.

Some places have started banning plastic shopping bags, but until there is an alternative or regulation to plastic sachet packaging, this problem won't go away.