SOON the use of plastic bags and styrofoam for wrapping, bagging and/or packaging will be prohibited in Pavia, Iloilo. The Sangguniang Bayan approved the Plastic Bags and Styrofoam Regulation Ordinance on its third and final reading recently.
It’s about time, really. People think plastic bags have become an irreplaceable component of modern living; that anything less than it could disrupt or make our daily lives less comfortable.
But the fact is, there are many alternatives to plastics, including reusable shopping bags made of cloth (katsa), woven bags (libon) made of, among others, hemp or rattan (alat) and more recently, biodegradable plastic bags, which have been proven less harmful with bio-components that can decompose in the natural environment. These environmentally-acceptable alternative bags are not hard to find. They can eliminate thousands of plastic bags.
“Plastic cellophane, sando bags, and expandable polystyrene (EPS) foams — being non-biodegradable materials — clog our canals, creeks, rivers, and other waterways, causing floods during the rainy season and causing harm to these waterways and the surrounding communities,” says SB member Daniel Fajardo II, author of Pavia’s Plastic Bags and Styrofoam Regulation Ordinance.
Very true. Plastics are clogging up sewers. But not only that. They also cause soil and food chain contamination when polyethylene, the main component of plastic, breaks down and releases toxic substances that leach into the soil. They also kill marine and land animals that mistakenly ingest plastics or become entangled in plastic bags.
We urge more retail establishments and local governments to promote the use of alternative bags to curb the proliferation of polyethylene plastic bags and help raise public awareness on their harmful effects to the environment.
Pavia’s move to regulate the use of plastic bags and styrofoam should convince other local governments not only in Western Visayas but in other regions to do the same.
