Gov't asked to regulate use of plastic

The government was urged Friday to regulate the use of plastic materials to minimize land-based sources of pollution and increase efforts to protect water quality.

Sen. Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. stressed this point when he cited a result of a joint survey by Greenpeace and EcoWaste Coalition that plastic bags and other synthetic packaging materials comprised 76 percent of the garbage retrieved from Manila Bay.

Sen. Loren Legarda, chairperson of the Senate climate change committee, has sought the banning of plastic materials whose uncontrolled use is creating an ecological degradation.

Senate Bill 2749 that Marcos has filed seeks to address this serious ecological malady by pressing for the use of ‘’reusable, bio-degradable bags, made of a washable material that does not contain lead or any other heavy metal in a toxic amount, and designed and manufactured for at least 100 uses, which shall be available for customers.’’

Legarda has also filed a bill banning the use of plastic bags to stop the uncontrolled degradation of the environment.

Marcos cited published reports that half of the 78 percent of the garbage retrieved from Manila Bay were plastic carry bags and about 19 percent were junk food wrappers and sachets, five percent styrofoam and one percent hard plastics.

If enacted into law, ‘’consumers are encouraged to reduce, and eventually eliminate, the use of plastic bags, thereby saving the fragile life of our environment,’’ he explained

Posted in: Plastics