Passage of bill on single-use plastics ban pushed

Abante made the call after the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), issued a resolution banning the use of single-use plastics in all government offices. (Pexels Photo)

MANILA – House Minority Leader Bienvenido Abante Jr. on Wednesday called for the immediate passage of a measure seeking to permanently prohibit the manufacture, importation, sale, and use of single-use plastic products in the country.

Abante made the call after the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), an attached agency of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), issued a resolution banning the use of single-use plastics in all government offices.

DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu signed NSWMC Resolution No.

1363, Series of 2020, which bans the use “unnecessary” single-use plastic products particularly cups less than 0.2 millimeter in thickness, drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks, knives, “labo” or thin and translucent plastic bags, and thin-filmed sando bags lower than 15 microns.

“This is a step in the right direction and, I believe, a signal to those of us in Congress to finally pass a law to prohibit the use of single-use plastics in our country,” Abante said in a press conference.

He said House Bill No. 3773 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.”

Examples of these products are grocery bags, food packaging containers and bags, water bottles, straws, stirrers, styrofoam, cups, sachets, and plastic cutlery.

Abante said such a measure “is way overdue given the damage caused by single-use plastics to the environment and the amount of single-use plastic that we produce each year.”

He said the Philippines produces 2.7 million metric tons of plastic each year and is estimated to have the 3rd highest rate of mismanaged plastic waste in the world.

“This can be attributed to the fact that ours is what is called a ‘sachet economy,’ meaning we buy many products in small quantities,” he said.

“As a result, data shows that we use more than 163 million plastic sachet packets daily, or around 60 billion sachets a year. Many of these used sachets find their way to our seas, as studies shockingly show that 80 percent of ocean plastics come from land-based sources––not from fishing vessels or the fisheries sector,” he added.