WE WOULD have wanted to hear the President emphasize ecological solutions to the waste and pollution problems afflicting the country in his third State of the Nation Address (SONA) yesterday. It would have driven home his point in closing Boracay Island for six months for rehabilitation.
The President should rally the whole nation in embracing proven waste prevention and reduction strategies, including waste segregation at source, reusing, recycling and composting, to tame the ballooning national production of garbage estimated at over 40,000 tons per day.
Now is the time for the President to direct national government agencies and local government units to actively implement Republic Act 9003 through the replication of best practices in ecological discards management and the strict enforcement of prohibited acts such as the manufacture, distribution or use of non-environmentally acceptable packaging materials, littering, open dumping, open burning, and waste incineration.
RA 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, requires a comprehensive and ecological approach to managing municipal solid waste via waste prevention, reduction, source separation, reuse, recycling and composting, excluding waste incineration. EcoWaste Coalition, an anti-incinerator campaigner, has appealed to the President to reconsider his stance as regards the establishment of waste-to-energy (WtE) incineration plants for burning discards. Burning discards in WtE facilities will only worsen the country’s garbage situation as this quick-fix “solution” will only encourage reckless consumption and throw-away attitude and lead to the release of by-product pollutants of combustion such as dioxins and other environmental contaminants. What our communities need are functional materials recovery facilities and clean recycling factories rather than waste burners.
The President should weigh in on the need to protect our people against health and environmental harms caused by chemical exposure and the need for companies to shift to clean production and to make those polluting the ecosystems pay. It is also high time to make his voice heard regarding the plastic and chemical pollution that is making our oceans dirty and sick. Why not declare a ban on single-use plastics such as plastic bags, straws and stirrers, as well as the ban on microplastics in cosmetics? These assault our oceans and food supply.
We do hope that the President will back progressive policies and measures that will protect public health and the environment against hazardous chemicals, products and wastes.
A healthy citizenry and environment are keys to progress, too.
