SENATE OFFICE, Manila, April 6, 2011- Senator Loren Legarda, Chair of the Senate Committee on Climate Change urged a total ban on the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags throughout the country with the objective of curbing pollution and helping the nation manage its ecological resources more wisely, following the recent United States Environmental Protection Agency study that about 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags consumed worldwide yearly while the 2005 World Wildlife Fund Report showed that about 200 different marine species die due to ingestion and choking from plastic bags.
Legarda said that the study revealed the unrelenting and neglectful use of plastic bags around the world, saying that plastic bags end up as litter as it makes its way to landfills, drainages and bodies of water, taking decades to decompose and damaging marine life when dumped in the sea. This issue of pollution is further aggravated by natural hazards, which have become unpredictable due to climate change.
She cited the flooding in Metro Manila areas and made post-cleanup in 2009 as typhoon Ondoy struck the country where plastic bags severely worsened the flooding; thus, Legarda filed Senate Bill 2759 otherwise known as the Total Plastic Bag Ban Act of 2011, which prohibits groceries, supermarkets, public markets, restaurants, fast food chains, department stores, retail stores and other similar establishments from using non-biodegradable plastic bags to prevent the problem from worsening.
Legarda proposed penalty for violators with a fine of P10,000 for the first offense; P50,000 for the second offense; and, P200,000 as well as one year suspension of business permit for the third offense.
The Senator said that all sectors of society should act with dispatch in the problems of pollution, environmental degradation and severe weather shifts escalate, saying that to produce impact in the environment everybody must make conscious efforts to change the daily routine and practices.
“Business establishments have to change their economic mindset, wasteful production processes and packaging methods from the use of seemingly cost-effective plastic bags into investing in long-term reusable and recyclable bags which are more sustainable in the long run, adding that this will help a lot in fighting pollution in the country,” Legarda furthered. (Jason de Asis)
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