The government plays an integral role in responding to natural and human disasters. Guided by Stuart Hall’s Encoding/Decoding Model of Communication, this study compared how Quezon City and Marikina City communicate and implement their environmental policies to their residents, and how the residents, in turn, receive and understand the message. The Zero Waste Movement emerged at the time where people were becoming more conscious about the hazardous effects of garbage to the environment which aims to reduce or to eliminate waste through subtly changing one’s lifestyle. Hence, guided by the Social Ecological Model, this study also examined the environmental facilitators and barriers of the youth in their engagement in the movement through gathering insights and experiences from 18 youth informants. The study discovered that most of the youth living a zero waste lifestyle were majorly motivated by their environmental facilitators in starting and continuing their zero waste journey regardless of the existence and implementation of environmental policies in their cities. However, informants who were residents of Marikina were heavily influenced by their city’s implemented ordinances and programs related to waste management and plastic use. Moreover, the study found that having wellimplemented and properly disseminated policies may be a key factor in an individual’s likelihood of living a zero waste lifestyle.