[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’EDITORIAL | Eco-friendly freedom’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Monday, June 12, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
LET us think green as we celebrate Independence Day today. Independence from plastic bags is what this country needs, among others.
Our continued romance with plastic bags has to end. A divorce from the bag is the way to go if the country is serious about solid waste avoidance and volume reduction through source reduction and waste minimization measures, which is among the policies enshrined in the Solid Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 or Republic Act 9003.
Plastic bags are a headache when you look at it from a zero waste perspective. After you are done managing the other waste types, one still wonders what to do with plastic bags.
Why do away with plastic bags? Because its use encourages the throw-away habit, which is among the enemies of zero waste. Because they remain among the top 10 discards found in beaches all over the world, according to Ocean Conservancy. Because plastic bags do not biodegrade. They simply break down to tiny plastic bits which readily soak up toxins, then contaminate soil, waterways, and animals upon digestion. Because they are hardly recycled but thrown away. Because 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.
Environmentally-acceptable alternative bags are not hard to find such as reusable cloth bags and bayong. Estimates have it that plastic bag consumption worldwide lies somewhere between 500 billion and one trillion pieces annually; that’s almost a million every minute.
Independence from plastic bags is what this country needs, among others. Let us think green as we celebrate Independence Day today.
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
