Eco group asks schools to ban plastic bags, styro containers

An ecological group over the weekend appealed to schools to ban plastic bags and polystyrene (styro) containers from campus.

 

EcoWaste Coalition said disposable plastic bags and polystyrene are "non-environmentally acceptable,” and add to pollution.

 

"They usually end up as residual wastes with nowhere to go but the dumps, adding to the already voluminous polluting garbage there," said campaigner Christina Vergara.

 

She added the Department of Education is mandated by law to "strengthen the integration of environmental concerns in school curricula at all levels, with particular emphasis on the theory and practice of waste management principles like waste minimization."

 

Vergara said many local governments realize the need for waste minimization by banning or regulating the use of disposable plastic bags and polystyrene.

 

The group cited the case of De La Salle University (DLSU) in Dasmariñas, Cavite, which has been free of plastic bags since 2011 and free of styro since 2005.

 

Marlon Pereja, director of the campus' Environmental Resource Management Center, said they "tremendously reduced the amount of residual wastes in the campus, lessen our operational expenses related to waste management, and imbued good values that led to a change in behavior toward good stewardship among our students and school personnel.”

 

“(T)he values and practice of ecological stewardship, which should start at home, should be strengthened in the school, if we are to produce citizens that truly care for the environment," he added.

 

Aside from DLSU-D, Cong. RA Calalay Memorial Elementary School in San Francisco del Monte, Quezon City, St. Scholastica's College in San Fernando City, Pampanga, and schools in Batangas City, Batangas have alreay banned the use of plastic bags, the group said.

 

The group suggested that school administrators adopt policies such as phasing out disposable plastic bags and polystyrene utensils in school premises, using reusable containers and tableware for students and school personnel, waste management strategies including segregation, composting, recycling, and reuse in the school. — Joel Locsin/JDS, GMA News