NOT NECESSARY

Here I present to you the claims on why zero waste management is not necessary program to
eradicate waste specifically plastic waste. First of all let me start this speech with a saying by
Jim Rhon, a well known entrepreneur and motivational speaker. He says that “Discipline is the
bridge between goals and accomplishments. Relating this to the topic of zero waste
management, in achieving this goal of having zero waste is almost impossible to achieve
without the practice of discipline. This program, the zero waste management, is almost purely
on an individual’s discipline, because in order for zero waste to be realized, people must put the
time and effort to actually segregate their waste, yes this might be achievable in a rural lifestyle
but on a fast phased urban lifestyle managing and maintaining a career is already takes up a lot
of time and effort, so in conclusion we don’t see this program as a full proof plan or solution to
the issue of waste management. Because in addition Manila and Quezon combined contributes
4.7 Million to the population, which is both a highly urbanized locations. Second, zero waste in
the Philippines aims to fully limit the use of one time use plastic materials, like the new social
media trend today, the metal straws, yes it is beneficial for the fact that it saves our oceans or
marine life, but put this in to perspective, in order to produce metal straws, we need metal, and
for us to get metal we need to mine. And mining is also known to cause severe environmental
problems like water pollution, loss of biodiversity, soil erosion and etc. Yes, we can purchase
imported metal straws so we can avoid mining our lands, that is put into consideration but
shipping these products also contributes to the greenhouse gases because for engines to work
we have to burn gases. This is also the same with paper bags, yes it is biodegradable but it also
not quite reusable it is not waterproof and as durable as plastic. Paper bags also cost a lot more
to produce and to ship, because paper bags take up more space. Then same with plastics,
majority of paper bags are also made in china so there is actually no change or decrease in
carbon footprint. Take also in mind paper is also made up of wood, and we all know that
deforestations and wild fires are a big concern for our world right now and possibly for the
future, and yes paper can be recycled but Philippines is still a developing country and
machinery used for efficient and mass recycling will be financially hard for us to attain.
Reusable bags is also an option but you have to use the bag for about 104 times just to break
even with the plastic bags because producing a reusable bag requires more resources. Then my
third and final point, we don’t see zero waste management in a global scale. Keep in mind that
plastic is not only a problem in our country but for the whole world as well. Resolving waste
issue must be in the cooperation of all nations and the solution must be fully agreed and known
globally. So that concludes my statement why we think zero waste program is not necessary.