RECENTLY, the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) issued Resolution 1363, series of 2020, which will ban some, not all, single-use plastics or SUPs in government offices.
This was welcomed as a good first step towards eliminating plastic pollution. But the Commission could do more – and better.
The resolution has a limited scope to reduce plastic pollution. It directs the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to prepare and implement the prohibition on the use of “unnecessary SUPs” by the offices of national government agencies, local government units and all other government controlled offices as a “solid waste avoidance and minimization strategy.”
Seriously missing in the scope of the policy is the approach to prevent single use and throw-away packaging – when the government should be in a leadership position to implement alternative product packaging and delivery models and systems.
The ban, at is currently stands, will only cover plastic cups lower than 0.2 mm in thickness, plastic labo and thin-filmed sando bags lower than 15 microns, as well as plastic drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks and knives. This policy is inadequate, full of loopholes, and could probably result in the use of more crappy plastic packaging nationwide.
Contrary to the rationale being used by the DENR to justify this policy, there are practical and cheaper alternatives available for most SUPs being banned in other countries as well. The DENR should learn from the policy and implementation experiences of other countries that have instituted bans on SUPs instead of protecting the interests of plastics manufacturers using the guise of “affordability” or economic arguments.
Despite the availability of practical alternatives, we’re surprised not to see single-use plastic bottles, polystyrene food and beverage containers and sachet-packed products listed among the target SUPs to be banned in government offices as these materials are among the top polluting discards we regularly find in cleanups and waste audits.
Considering the inadequacy of the NSWMC resolution, we urge the government to come up with a truly meaningful, comprehensive national policy on SUPs, which also covers the single-use, throwaway packaging question – and not cosmetic, half-baked proposals which do nothing significant to address the scale of the problem.
