‘Tighter rules on single-use plastics should cover manufacturers’

By Jonathan L. Mayuga, Businessmirror, 26 Feb 2020

Plastics compose most of the waste at the Taytay Materials Recovery Facility in Barangay Muzon, Taytay, Rizal.

Environmental groups welcomed the move of the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) to impose a ban on the use of selected plastic products in all government offices, saying it will help reduce plastic pollution in the country.

Still, many of the groups believe the NSWMC could have gone for wider coverage of the plastic ban, encompassing more single-use plastic products and beyond government offices, in issuing Resolution 1363.

They said more stringent rules in the future should include manufacturing companies that produce plastic products.

Resolution 1363 bans the use of “unnecessary” plastic products, like plastic spoon and fork, stirrer, thin plastic cups, and plastic bags that are “certified” single-use in government offices, including national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and even government-funded facilities.

Sought for comment, Leon Dulce, national coordinator of Kalikasan-PNE said: “An initial selective single-use plastics ban is a welcome move toward reducing plastic pollution in the country.”

“The full transition away from single-use plastics should be fast-tracked by imposing stricter regulations and levies on manufacturing corporations to discourage their use of various other forms of plastics,” Dulce added.

Greenpeace Southeast Asia, through its Philippine Country Director Lea Guerrero, said it is good that single-use plastics are finally being banned in government offices. However, she said the resolution is “low in ambition” and “borders on tokenism.”

“As it is, based on reports about what is included in the resolution, it’s not an actual ban on single-use plastics. They haven’t banned plastic bags or plastic cups, or disposable PET bottles—just stirrers, straws and cutlery. Plastic bags and cups are allowed depending on their thickness,” said Guerrero.

She said allowing thicker plastic bags and cups don’t make sense. “Thicker plastic bags and cups are still disposable. Also, it would be interesting to find out how they’re going to implement it—who’s going to measure the thickness of the plastic bags and cups used in government offices to see if they fit the regulation?”

Guerrero said some LGUS, supermarkets, restaurants and malls have already banned, or are in the process of banning plastic bags and cups. Since government offices don’t rely on plastic bags and cups, Guerrero said it shouldn’t be hard for them to do the same.

“It’s disappointing that given their mandate on environmental protection, the DENR [Department of Environment and Natural Resources] and NSWMC could have aimed for much better regulation, but they didn’t,” she said.

Von Hernandez, Global Coordinator of Break Free From Plastic, said Resolution 1363 is “inadequate, full of loopholes, and could probably result in the use of more crappy plastic packaging nationwide.”

Hernandez noted that it does not cover single-use plastic bottles and Styrofoam cups, which are among the top polluting items regularly found in the group’s waste audits. Secondly, he said the policy is “practically unimplementable” because there’s no designated agency that will measure the thickness of bags and cups.

“Experience in other countries has shown that this type of policy approach has resulted in the production and proliferation of more plastic bags in commerce and the environment,” he said.

Contrary to the rationale being used by the DENR to justify the policy, Hernandez said there are practical and cheaper alternatives available for most single-use plastics being banned in other countries as well.

“The DENR should learn from the policy and implementation experiences of other countries that have instituted bans on single-use plastics instead of protecting the interests of plastics manufacturers using the guise of ‘affordability’ or economic arguments,” he said.

Instead of issuing Resolution 1363, National coordinator of EcoWaste Coalition Aileen Lucero said the DENR and the NSWMC should release the list of Non-Environmentally Acceptable Packaging and Products (NEAP), as mandated by Republic Act 9003.

“The NEAP list, once released will benefit all not just for government offices and will push manufacturers to opt for alternative packaging and delivery system,” said Lucero.