Cleanup

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Saturday. September 16, 2017
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DO YOU know that the month of September is National Cleanup Month? Proclamation No. 244 also declares the 17th to the 23rd of September of each year as the World Clean and Green Week. These events encourage communities to clean up, fix and conserve the environment as the country’s contribution to the worldwide environmental preservation efforts.

One of the most neglected areas needing cleanup are our seas. We can’t see the garbage because they’re under the water but they’re there, no thanks to the dumping of mostly plastic waste contaminating marine ecosystems and lethally threatening aquatic organisms.

How do we prevent plastics and other discards from spilling from land to water courses and bodies? Through the genuine enforcement of Republic Act (RA) 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. Among a long list of prohibitions, this law forbids and penalizes littering, open burning, open dumping, the manufacture, distribution or use of non-environmentally acceptable packaging materials, and the importation of toxic wastes misrepresented as “recyclable.”

The 16-year old RA 9003 remains poorly enforced, with many local governments failing to halt acts prohibited under the law – from the ubiquitous littering to the non-closure of polluting dumpsites, and falling short of higher waste diversion targets.

The United Nations Environment Assembly, which includes the Philippines as represented by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, had pointed out that “(waste) prevention and the environmentally sound management of waste are keys to long-term success in combating marine pollution.” The UN Environment (formerly the United Nations Environment Programme) had also recommended a ban or phase-out of thin film, single use plastic bags that choke marine life.

The national and local governments, businesses and industries and all other waste generators, including the households, must strive to adopt the best environmental practices in ecological solid waste management excluding incineration, as required by RA 9003 and as recommended by the UN. A national legislation banning single-use plastic bags and mainstreaming eco- alternatives is one of the key environmental policies that the country needs to adopt.
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