AS OUR nation faces a myriad of societal problems, green groups are urging President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to tackle the adverse impacts of waste and plastic pollution and to work for safe and sustainable solutions.
The State of the Nation Address (SONA) is an important opportunity to put the plastic pollution crisis in the national consciousness and action agenda. All Filipinos must know and completely understand the absolute truth about plastic, most especially single-use plastics. They come from fossil-fuel based chemicals like petroleum or crude oil that are finite and dirty. It is an unsustainable and unhealthy resource we can’t seem to quit generating and using. And for what? Its function has a short timespan in exchange for a lifetime of environmental and health damage.
To address the situation, green groups called on: 1) educational, science, and technology sectors to share the truth about single use plastic; 2) manufacturers and consumers to invest in quality goods that are safe to use and last long; and 3) policymakers to create an enabling environment that will encourage people to choose only what is safe and sustainable and not what is only convenient, stressing “convenience at the expense of health is a self-imposed impediment.”
The government must ensure stricter implementation of Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, to invest in reuse and refill systems and to divest from waste-to-energy incineration technologies. President Marcos must act on the plastic pollution by urgently reducing plastic production and use in the country. He should introduce measures to prevent harmful impacts on Filipinos affected by plastic from production to wastage by reducing plastic production and curbing corporate dependence on single-use plastics.
Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental threats impacting people’s health and the environment. Additionally, the Philippines should take a strong stance and actively take part in the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations and ensure that the Treaty should end the production and use of toxic chemicals in plastics, remove toxic impacts at all stages of the lifecycle of plastics, and protect the public’s right to know about chemicals in plastics and information on plastic production and waste exports.
We hope and pray that the President in his SONA will prioritize ecological waste management as a crucial national agenda. The effective implementation of proper waste segregation should be emphasized, especially at the household level, to address the plight of our hardworking waste collectors, especially when dealing with overwhelming amounts of non-biodegradable waste.
We would like the President to commit to banning single-use plastics in the country. It may be a challenging task for a country like ours to adopt, but it’s not impossible. We should invest in our future and for future generations.
