THE LOCAL government of Malay, Aklan is enforcing an ordinance prohibiting single-use plastics when Boracay Island reopens in October. Municipal Ordinance No. 386 prohibits hotels, resorts, other accommodation establishments, and restaurants from using single-use plastics.
This policy is most welcome. But its enforcement is another thing. Does the local government have the political will to implement the ordinance? We will see…
Single-use plastics – bags, cups, straws, styrofoam food containers, and cutlery, among others – frequently do not make it to a landfill or are recycled. It is estimated that four trillion plastic bags are used worldwide annually and only one percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling, according to the Earth Day Network. Plastic straws are among the top 10 waste items found on beaches.
Across the world, plastics make up 85 percent of marine litter. They reach people’s lungs and dinner tables, with micro-plastics in the air, water and food having an unknown impact on their health. Boracay may be a small island but the ban on single-use plastics there is already a big and significant contribution to efforts addressing the global plastic crisis.
It’s time to ban single-use plastics to halt the destructive plastic incursion of the oceans that has already reached crisis proportions. Marine ecosystems are choking to death because of the plastic wastes and the cocktail of chemicals that are increasingly dumped into water bodies.
But here’s the thing. If the small local government unit of Malay can pass a local law prohibiting single-use plastics, can’t Congress craft a similar law for nationwide application? Yes, why not a national ban on single-use plastics?
Our lawmakers must heed the signs of the times such as the plastic-clogged esteros and the eight million tons of plastic spilled into the seas every year, and take strong action against the unnecessary applications of plastics.
The fact that these single-use plastics keep ending up in our oceans, coastal areas and dumpsites prove they are problematic, unrecyclable, and almost impossible to manage. Besides, binging on the use of plastic items that one uses for only a matter of minutes and yet will outlive us by hundreds of years is just plain absurd and irresponsible.
Having signed up to the United Nations Environment’s #CleanSeas campaign against marine litter, the government should waste no time and make the banning of single-use plastics a national priority to protect fish, a staple food for Filipinos, as well as fish-based livelihoods, which plays a key role in the country’s food security. According to some studies, if plastic waste spillage from land sources is not discontinued, by 2050 oceans will have more plastic than fish!
Our continued dependence on single-use plastics and disposables is bringing us to the brink of a global crisis that now threatens the health of our oceans and our collective well-being. It is time we end this destructive cycle and break free from the scourge of plastics pollution.
