AS THE Dinagyang Festival highlights draw closer, we are seeing the sprouting of lots and lots of disposable plastic banderitas and advertisements in tarpaulins adorning Iloilo City’s streets. In this era of climate and plastic pollution emergency, the use of these banderitas is actually excessive. It’s as if the city and the entire country are not yet churning out too much plastic garbage.
The unrestrained use of plastic banderitas in connection with the feast of Santo Niño as if there was no tomorrow is deeply saddening. It’s an overkill of wasteful single use plastics. Rarely reused or recycled, these banderitas consisting of semi-transparent plastic bags, plastic strips or plastic packaging scraps add to the residual plastic garbage that ends up in dumps or on the streets and waterways.
But far from being harmless, these disposable banderitas are a threat to the natural environment, especially when these are littered, burned or dumped on land or at sea.
The wild use of single-use plastic banderitas is certainly not in tune with the city hall’s goal to “level up” in all aspects of governance – including the management of solid waste. This is also not in step with the call made by Catholic bishops in 2019 urging dioceses to “actively promote ecological awareness and action… by eliminating single-use plastics… from our homes and institutions.”
Let us rethink the outdated use of disposable plastic buntings during festivals, fiestas and other celebrations. As plastic banderitas, which are made from chemicals obtained from fossil fuels, serve no functional purpose and are not really essential for the good conduct of any festivity, we appeal to all to stop this classic example of preventable wastefulness.
