Plastic bag phase-out pushed
MANILA, Philippines -- Various advocacy groups and community sectors gathered at the Quezon Memorial Circle in Quezon City Sunday to push for the total phase out on the use of plastic bags in celebration of the International Plastic Bag-Free Day.
Individuals and organizations from non-government organizations to academe, college students to senior citizens, Church-based groups to bike enthusiasts, beauty queens to local government units surrounded the full circumference of the Quezon Memorial Circle with a chain of plastic bags from various establishments.
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) campaigner Paeng Lopez said the chain represents only a tiny fraction of the world’s plastic problem and “highlights our very own here at home.”
“If merely hundreds of people here today can enclose the entire Quezon Memorial Circle with plastic bags, imagine what 95.8 million Filipinos do to our waterways, marine life, and climate with our continued consumption of plastic bags,” he said.
EcoWaste Coalition said at present, there are more than 10 cities and municipalities that have banned plastic bags and about 10 more are proposing to do the same.
“We are glad that more and more provinces, cities, and municipalities are taking on what Los Baños, Muntinlupa, Batangas City, Lucban, and other pioneer LGUs have done,” Miss Earth Athena Mae Imperial pointed out.
The groups expressed gratefulness to the LGUs who have started to phase-out and ban plastic bags in their jurisdictions, and called for a national law that will enhance waste reduction by prohibiting the same and promoting organic reusable bags.
“We know for a fact that our noble legislators in Congress, led by the tireless Committee on Ecology, are doing their best to complement what our LGUs have started,” EcoWaste president Roy Alvarez said.
Plastic Bag Problems - News
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) campaigner Paeng Lopez said the chain represents only a tiny fraction of the world's plastic problem and “highlights our very own here at home.” “If merely hundreds of people here today can enclose
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Green groups push national phaseout of plastic bags - Interaksyon.com
MANILA, Philippines – Their campaign may still have a long way to go, but campaigners against plastic bags hope, in time, to see more cities and towns adopting Muntinlupa’s example of banning the environmental bane that has been blamed for Ondoy and similar floods.
Concerned individuals and organizations from NGOs to academe, college students to senior citizens, Church-based groups to bike enthusiasts, beauty queens to LGUs converged on Sunday at the Quezon Memorial Circle to participate in the International Plastic Bag-Free Day.
Bearing banners and placards calling, among others, for a nationwide phaseout on plastic bags, the collective also linked together a “plastic bag chain” made of used plastic bags and surrounded the full circumference of Quezon Circle.
“This chain, made of plastic bags from recognizable establishments, represents but a tiny fraction of the world’s plastic problem and highlights our very own here at home,” lamented campaigner Paeng Lopez of Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives [GAIA].
“If merely hundreds of people here today can enclose the entire Quezon Memorial Circle with plastic bags, imagine what 95.8 million Filipinos do to our waterways, marine life, and climate with our continued consumption of plastic bags,” he added.
The group thanked the LGUs who have started to phase out and ban plastic bags in their jurisdictions, and called for a national law that will enhance waste reduction by prohibiting the same and promoting organic reusable bags.
“We know for a fact that our noble legislators in Congress, led by the tireless Committee on Ecology, are doing their best to complement what our LGUs have started,” revealed Roy Alvarez, president of EcoWaste Coalition.
“And we want them to know that we will be behind them in firmly cutting down waste and phasing-out plastic bags,” he added.
The group called for the enactment of a law that will: phase out plastic bags [regular and degradable]; promote organic reusable bags; espouse take-back mechanisms and recycling; support LGUs in their waste management initiatives; impose environmental levy on plastic bags; and for accountability purposes, label so-called “degradable” plastic bags to show name of manufacturers, manufacturing date, and the degradation period of the bag.
The group also warned about the proliferation of so-called “biodegradable” plastics, and shared the findings of Loughborough University and DEFRA-UK which revealed that while these materials may degrade in 2-5 years, their biodegradability remains unclear.
Plastic Bag Problems - Bookshelf
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