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[av_heading heading=’EDITORIAL | A timely ban’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Wednesday, June 28, 2017
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BEGINNING this Saturday, July 1, plastic bags will be totally banned in Iloilo City after some four years of gradual implementation. Let us see if the city government indeed has the political will to implement Regulation Ordinance No. 2013-403.
Some quarters claim they have no idea about the ordinance. They should tell that to the marines. The ordinance was approved on Oct. 8, 2013 yet and everybody was given four years to gradually comply.
The plastic bag ban is very timely. Every rainy season, this city is besieged with floods due to waterways clogged with plastic bags, styrofoam and other disposable materials. Children are forced to wade in dirty water going to school while many houses suffer from rat and pest infestations all because of their own garbage. But we can be a part of the solution. Taking and using reusable carry bags to the market or sari-sari store is a friendly gift to our environment.
Plastic bags are the embodiment of an antiquated, throw-away mentality. It’s about time Iloilo City bans them to stop the nonchalant disposal of these materials and protect our environment. By outlawing the use of plastic bags we substantially reduce our waste generation, thereby cutting waste management costs and lessening related environmental risks such as flooding and marine pollution from happening (plastic bags usually end up littering the streets and dumpsites, at the same time, polluting our waterways such as rivers and seas).
Banning the use of plastic bags will also help boost the demand for locally-made bayongs and cloth bags, which supports local cottage industries, thereby creating more employment and business opportunities in both urban and rural areas as raw materials for these products are readily available all over the country.
So yes, let us do away with plastic bags and instead use the traditional bayong, basket and other reusable materials. We have to rethink our lifestyle and minimize our demand for plastics and disposable items. Let us support the choices that provide ecological benefits.
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