IT’S EARTH DAY today and the observance focuses on the need to end plastic pollution.
To be more specific, plastic bags are a headache when you look at it from a zero waste perspective. One is because after you are done managing the other waste types, one still wonders, “What am I to do with these plastic bags?”
If the country is serious about solid waste avoidance and volume reduction through source reduction and waste minimization measures, doing away plastic bags is the way to go.
Why shun plastic bags?
Plastic bag use encourages the throw-away habit, which is among the enemies of zero waste.
Plastic bags remain among the top 10 discards found in beaches all over the world, according to Ocean Conservancy. They do not bio-degrade. They simply break down to tiny plastic bits which readily soak up toxins, then contaminate soil, waterways, and animals upon digestion.
Plastic bags are hardly recycled. Well, they cannot truly be recycled, rather, they are merely downcycled into products that are of low quality, necessitating the destructive extraction of more virgin materials to make new ones.
Estimates have it that plastic bag consumption worldwide lies somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion pieces annually, almost a million every minute.
However you look at it, plastic bags suit the title non-environmentally acceptable packaging.
Independence from plastic bags is thus what this country needs. It’s a relief that many continue to get into the list of local governments which have decided to do away with plastic bags like Iloilo City and the municipality of Santa Barbara in Iloilo province.
Oh yes, environmentally acceptable alternative bags are not hard to find. Reusable bags, like cloth bags and the good old bayong, can eliminate thousands of plastic bags.
