Following the call of the Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary and Climate Change Commission (CCC) Chairperson Carlos Dominguez to ban single-use plastic, a House leader on Wednesday appealed to his colleagues and urged them to support legislation aimed at “preserving our environment for future generations of Filipinos.”
According to Deputy Speaker and Manila 6th District Rep. Benny Abante Jr., with barely 18 months left in the 18th Congress, “the times call for us in the House to pass landmark legislation that will have a long-term, positive effect on the environment: a nationwide ban on single-use plastic.”
“Let us leave a concrete and lasting legacy for our children, grandchildren, and their children––let us be remembered as the Congress that ushered in the end of plastic pollution in the Philippines.”
“Let us leave a concrete and lasting legacy for our children, grandchildren, and their children––let us be remembered as the Congress that ushered in the end of plastic pollution in the Philippines.”
The lawmaker is the author of House Bill No. 3773 or the “Single-use Plastic Product Ban of 2019.” The measure, if passed, would prohibit the manufacture, importation, sale, and use of all single-use products one year after the effectivity of the law.
The measure defines single-use plastic as “disposable plastic products which are commonly used for packaging and include items to be used only once that are thrown away or recycled,” such as grocery bags, food packaging containers and bags, water bottles, straws, stirrers, Styrofoam, cups, sachets, and plastic cutlery.
In a virtual meeting with the Management Association of the Philippines, Dominguez said “we don’t have a lot of time left, so let’s limit our efforts to getting something important passed and this is doable,” referring the passage of legislation banning single-use plastic. The ranking member of the government’s economic team stated that it would be a priority project of the CCC.
Abante stressed that the House “should view this as a signal to aggressively and enthusiastically work to pass HB No. 3773 and similar measures at the soonest possible time.”
The Philippines ranks as the world’s third-biggest plastic polluter, after China and Indonesia, with 2.7 million metric tons according to a 2018 report by WWF, up to 74 percent of plastic in the Philippines that ends up in the ocean is from waste that has already been collected.
The Philippines ranks as the world’s third-biggest plastic polluter, after China and Indonesia, with 2.7 million metric tons according to a 2018 report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), up to 74 percent of plastic in the Philippines that end up in the ocean is from waste that has already been collected.
The report said that 386,000 tons of waste are leaked into the ocean every year because of hauler dumping—where private hauler companies unload their trucks into water bodies on the way to proper disposal sites in order to cut costs—and because of poorly located dumps situated near waterways. of plastic waste generated each year. Another disturbing statistic comes from a 2018 report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), which revealed that up to 74% of plastic in the Philippines that ends up in the ocean is from waste that has already been collected.