THE NATIONAL Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) chaired by Secretary Roy Cimatu of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has approved a resolution imposing a ban on single-use plastics in all government offices.
NSWMC Resolution No. 1363, Series of 2020 directs the DENR to “prepare and implement” the ban on the use of “unnecessary” single-use plastic products by national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and all other government-controlled offices.
The plastic products covered by the ban are cups less than 0.2 millimeter in thickness, drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks, knives, “labo” or thin and translucent plastic bags, and thin-filmed sando bags lower than 15 microns.
This NSWMC resolution is a major step to curb the use of single-use plastic items that pollute our waterways, kill marine life and contribute to our country’s increasing solid waste. DENR will soon come up with specific guidelines for the implementation of the plastics ban, which forms part of the government’s solid waste avoidance and minimization strategy.
This is a very good news. The United Nations has estimated that land-based sources, including plastic waste that has been blown into rivers and creeks by wind, are responsible for 80 percent of the world’s marine debris. The Philippines actually holds the dubious distinction of being the third biggest contributor of plastic pollution in the ocean, a conclusion of a study of 192 countries, and unless the quality of waste management and implementation of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 (Republic Act 9003) increases in a meaningful way, we would be responsible for much more in the coming years.
Yes, the NSWMC is an important first step to a sea change in the supply chain and the economic arrangements that have made single use plastic freely available. When government desists from the purchase of something undesirable, changes immediately happen in the market.
