Ban on plastic bags slowly gaining momentum

Four years after then Los Baños Mayor Caesar Perez enforced the plastic ban in the university town on June 2, 2008, close to 60 other towns and cities have since followed and the issue has reached the Senate and the House of Representatives.   Data from the Philippine Plastic Industry Association Inc. (PPIA) showed that Los Baños was one of the first – if not the very first – local government units that enforced the ban and espoused an eco-friendly approach to waste management.   Perez has since been elected as vice governor of Laguna.   On August 3, 2011, the House of Representatives approved HB 4840 or the Plastic Regulation Act of 2011. This legislation would require the phase out of non-biodegradable plastic bags within three years and the placement of a plastic bag recovery bin at each store or cluster of stores.   The in-store recovery “program is expected to provide customers the opportunity to return used plastic bags.   However, the proposed ban hasn’t been as lucky in the Senate. SB 2759 or the Total Plastic Bag Ban Act of 2011 is still pending. Tingnan ang Plastic Ban Map sa mas malaking mapa   One disaster mitigation plan   “Given the incessant flooding we experience due to clogged waterways, drainage and esteros and its impact on majority of poor Filipinos, I am confident that my colleagues here in the Senate appreciate the urgency of this measure,” said Senator Loren Legarda, author of the bill.   For Legarda the issue is already nearing a concession. “I think almost everyone is in agreement that the plastic bags we use often end up as litter since they make it way into landfills, drainages and bodies of water, like the Manila Bay and Laguna Lake,” she said.   However, she said, the proposed ban have to be studied carefully because of the number of people who might be displaced.   “There’s not one solution. It’s just one of the many measures we have to study properly. But all of this must be inputted together in one disaster mitigation plan,” Legarda noted.   “But we have to follow our environmental laws first,” she added.   Discipline – a core ingredient   According to the former mayor, the solid waste management program drastically curbed the garbage problem in the municipality. “Los Baños has successfully reduced its waste by 75 percent.”   However, discipline remains the core ingredient of the program, Perez noted. Without it, he said, no initiative would have succeeded. “Ang tao naghahanap ng pagbabago. Pero ang hindi nila alam, ang pagbabago magsisimula sa bawat isang mamamayan,” he added.   At least 59 cities and municipalities have passed their respective ordinances and are now in various stages of enforcing the ban on plastic bags.   Local ordinances have been passed by the LGUs in Lucban, Quezon, and Tanay, Rizal, as well as in Bacolod and Davao. More recently, Muntinlupa, Las Piñas, Marikina, and Makati, have also enforced the plastic ban.   Legarda, who chairs the Senate committee on climate change, said the support of LGUs serves to boost the campaign against non-biodegradable plastic bags and to use re-usable and recyclable plastic bags.   “Even as SB 2759 remains pending at the committee level, these cities and municipalities have clearly shown that such measure is enforceable so long as the twin elements of genuine concern for the environment and the necessary political will are present,” said Legarda.   More harm than good?   For the plastic industry, however, the ban is already doing more harm than good. Crispin Lao, former PPIA president, said manufacturers are ready to forego production of thin, disposable, and single-use plastic bags for thicker material that can be reused and recycled.   Lao said the plastic industry should not be blamed for the garbage problem, citing irresponsible consumers as the problem.   In a separate interview, Peter Quintana, incumbent PPIA president also said the current predisposition towards littering should be changed.   "The existing ban has already displaced over 600,000 employees. Instead of working six days a week, they have to work on rotation for 4-5 days," Quintana noted.   "Companies have retained most of the employees, but if this continues, layoffs and closures may eventually happen," he said.   He noted the importance of passing a national legislation so as to avoid confusion for both the industry and the consumers.   Willy Go, a factory owner whose business has been affected by the ban, said a national legislation might be the only solution for the "crippled" industry.   "The plastic industry has been in existence for the past 50 years without any assistance from government and has been a top contributor of government revenues and employment generation. And now due to the widespread plastic bag ban ordinance the industry is crippled," Go said.   "A national legislation will save the industry," he added. — VS, GMA News