IN PAVIA, Iloilo there is a proposed ordinance in the Sangguniang Bayan (SB) pushing to regulate the use of plastic bags and styrofoam in the municipality and promoting recyclable, reusable, and/or biodegradable alternative packaging materials such as eco-bags, woven bags (bayong), cloth bags (katsa), and rattan baskets.
“Plastic cellophane, sando bags, and expandable polystyrene (EPS) foams — being non-biodegradable materials — clog our canals, creeks, rivers, and other waterways, causing floods during the rainy season and causing harm to these waterways and the surrounding communities,” explains SB member Daniel S. Fajardo II, chairman of the Committee on Environmental Protection.
The proposed ordinance deserves utmost support from the public. It is a good step to help protect and preserve our environment.
According to the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternative report “Plastics Exposed”, each day the country produces 164 million pieces of sachets, 48 million shopping bags and 45.2 million pieces of so-called plastic labo bag. We are drowning in plastics and dying inch by inch from their toxic releases.
To halt the chemical and plastic contamination of our water bodies, particularly the oceans, local government units – in fact, it should be the national government – have to adopt sweeping policy changes that will address the problem at source, such as incentivize single-use plastic reduction and disincentivize single-use plastic production.
There are even calls for the government to ban single-use plastics outright. A national action plan is needed to move our society away from our addiction to throw-away plastics.
For us citizens, let us minimize, if not stop, the reckless use and disposal of single-use plastics. Let us adopt consumption choices and habits that will lessen the generation of plastic garbage.
Also, we ask every waste generator to manage their discards responsibly to prevent plastics and other wastes from entering the marine environment.
According to the United Nations report “Marine Plastic Debris and Microplastics,” 80 percent of all pollution in the sea comes from land, including some eight million tons of plastic waste each year, that have cost the lives of one million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals. Moreover, it causes $8 billion in damage annually to marine ecosystems.
Let us save Mother Earth. It’s the only one we have.
