A Position Paper on Plastic Pollution in the Philippines

Imposing Policies for Companies to Propose Cost-effective

Alternatives to Plastic Packaging and Applying Stricter
Implementation of R.A. 9003 for Government
Officials with Violations
INTRODUCTION

Plastic has become a valuable resource in our lives. Aside that it is inexpensive

and durable, it can be molded into different shapes and sizes depending on its intended

purpose. However, despite of its durability and convenience, most types of plastic take

hundreds of years to decompose resulting to a threatening amount of plastic waste

piling up on different parts of the world. In a 2016 report of the World Bank, the world

generated 242 million tons of plastic which primarily originated from three regions—57

million tons from the East Asia and the Pacific, 45 million tons from Europe and Central

Asia, and 35 million tons from North America. With the increasing amount of plastic

waste, the United Nations dubbed this problem as “one of the great environmental

challenges of all time.”

BACKGROUND

In the Philippines, particularly, it is no doubt that plastic pollution will be a major

environmental issue especially when there are approximately 106.7 million consumers

residing in this country. In February 2015, the country has been ranked as the third top

plastic polluter in the ocean, behind two other Asian nations, namely, China and

Indonesia. Apparently, the country precipitates at least 2.7 million metric tons of

garbage each year with 20 percent or 521,000 tons of its portion ends up in the ocean

while the remaining waste mostly comes from improper disposal on residential areas,

open dump sites, sanitary landfills, and even mismanaged collection of waste.

According to a global study in 2017, the Pasig River contributes at least 63,700 tons of

plastic in the ocean each year making the river as the world’s second worst contributor
of plastic in the ocean. This imposes threat to the health conditions of the living

organisms in the aquatic environment and, also, to the residents since the Philippines

highly depends on aquatic resources. Plastics don’t dissolve simply into the water,

rather, these breakdown into “microplastics.” These microplastics never cease to exist

and have the potential to escalate their toxic substance in the water. Hence, this

constitutes both environmental and economic impact since microplastics together with

its claimed toxins can be easily inhaled or swallowed by living organisms rendering

them unsafe for human consumption. It is notable how the problems of plastic pollution

endangers every species, even those who have nothing to do with it. There might be

numerous actions being taken to solve this prevailing problem yet, they seem to be not

enough. Aside from the lack of discipline of the consumers on disposing plastics,

numerous environmental experts and groups believe that there are at least two

additional factors as to why people are finding it hard to eradicate the problem with

plastic pollution.

ARGUMENT #1

One factor is that most government officials lack the political will to put enough

effort on eradicating the problem with plastics despite of having the go signal and

resources to do so. In 2000, a solution has been presented in the manifestation of

Republic Act 9003, also known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000

in which the said law is often being regarded as a model legislation of other countries

because it spells out every solution. Despite of it clearly stating the solutions,

environmental experts believe that the local governments are having a hard time to

implement its directives.

 For example, the aforementioned law mandates that every village or cluster of

villages must set up a Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) where biodegradable waste is

converted into fertilizer, recyclable material is recycled or sold to junk shops, and

residual waste is collected for transport to sanitary landfills. However, government data

shows that out of 42,036 villages of the country, only 24 percent has operational MRFs.

Implementation has been a challenge because the officials lack the political will to

impose actions that will be beneficial in the long run. Also, the funds that are supposedly

administered for waste management and the processing of needed papers are often

vulnerable for corruption.

Another example, studies have found that in the Philippines, 74 percent of the

plastics leaking into the ocean comes from the wastes being collected by haulers and

garbage trucks which sums up to at least 386,000 tons of garbage. The remaining

portion of plastics in the sea only actually comes from the plastic trash that is not

collected. This is caused by illegal dumping by garbage-hauling companies and open

dump sites that are established near waterways. Some companies admit that the

haulers unload their trucks on their way to the dump sites because this saves them

time, money, and even fuel consumption. Apparently, R.A. 9003 mandates that no open

dump sites should be established and operated by any person, including the LGUs and

only allowing sanitary landfills to be the drop off point. It has been 20 years since the

law has been implemented however, there are still more or less 600 illegal open dump

sites and only around 70 sanitary landfills in the country. This goes to show that the

politicians either lack the political will to use their position on closing down these illegal

open dump sites or the budget to produce the needed sanitary landfills.
 Some local governments believe that they have done everything to help on

solving this heightening problem. However, experts think otherwise because there is no

reason why the law cannot be implemented since San Fernando City in Pampanga has

given a satisfying amount of effort to implement the aforementioned law. In fact, the city

is regarded as a model for decentralized waste management and even dubbed as one

of the best zero-waste models in Asia-Pacific. One of its effort is the establishment of

Mother Earth Foundation in 2012 that worked with schools on waste reduction and has

resulted in an estimated 78 percent of the city’s waste being recycled in 2017. This

effort prevented the plastic waste from piling up on dump sites. If such things can be

made, it seems that some politicians are turning a blind eye on maximizing the true

potential of the R.A. 9003 and investing for long-term solutions because they are more

motivated on looking for band aid solutions for cost-cutting reasons.

ARGUMENT #2

Another prevailing factor is that a lot of companies are contributing as much in

this problem reason being that they are not giving more choices to the consumers. Right

before plastic sachets were introduced, the Filipinos were already adapting the “tingi”

culture and they were fine with the process of bringing their own reusable containers to

a sari-sari store whenever they buy small servings of items. However, things have

changed when single-use plastics as throwaway packaging were introduced by

consumer-goods companies during the 1970s. Companies have besieged the country’s

consumers with this type of packaging with the aim of selling their products at low price

points as they believe that these are economical for the low-income sector. Although it
is inexpensive and convenient to purchase, this backlashed for an explosion of plastic

waste in the Philippines.

Last year, an audit has shown that the Filipinos contribute nearly 60 billion single-

use sachets each year. This includes shopping bags and “labo” bags which amount to

17 billion pieces a year and 16.5 billion pieces a year, respectively. Plastic packaging

accounts to over 40 percent of total plastic usage making it as the largest end-use

market segment. Although, there are initiatives among cities on waste management

through recycling, proper collection of plastic trash, and even imposing policies that

bans the usage of shopping bags, there will always be residual wastes. Experts believe

that the country will not be ready to phase out the use of plastic entirely unless

companies will propose cost-effective alternatives. During summer, the Las Piñas–

Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area (LPPCHEA) workers collect a daily

average of 500 sacks of garbage from the island’s coastline. According to one of the

garbage collectors, most of the garbage that they collect are non-recyclable and non-

reusable single-use sachets that once contained shampoo, vinegar, soy sauce, and

other consumables. They are completely disheartened by the situation because this

also affects the livelihood of the fishermen nearby.

We have a well-constructed law on proper waste management yet, we don’t have

a law that mandates these capitalists to take responsibility for the products and

packaging that they are bringing out to the market. The government could do much

more by pressuring the companies to reduce their production of single-use plastic

packaging to prevent it finding its way into the Philippine seas and coastline. Surely,

companies are aware as they provided these materials that there are no infrastructures
that will dispose these plastics entirely. Aside from the efforts of the government and

environmental organizations, companies should also invest for a long-term solution. The

demand for plastics is created by the producers who refuses to take responsibility for

the explosion of plastic pollution and pass the liability to the consumers.

COUNTERARGUMENT #1

Despite of these negative factors, there are also commendable initiatives coming

from the Local Government Units (LGUs) and environmental organizations that will tell

otherwise. Through the passed R.A. 9003, LGUs are tasked to create their own local

solid waste management plans in which the National Solid Waste Management

Commission (NSWMC) that was established by the said law is responsible for reviewing

and overseeing the proposed plans. As of May 2019, 41.95 percent of the total number

of LGUs throughout the country has complied. Although, it is more than a half, the LGUs

who have complied are still laudable for their initiatives most especially Metro Manila

where out of 16 LGUs all of them have complied on having solid waste management

plans passed by the NSWMC. In addition for the compliance to R.A. 9003, January has

was declared as the “Zero Waste Month” through Proclamation No. 760 in 2014. During

this month, government offices, government-owned corporations, and non-

governmental organizations conduct activities that educate the public regarding

effective waste management.

COUNTERARGUMENT #2

Multi-national companies are also taking small steps on eradicating plastic

pollution. Though their initiatives are smaller compared to the government and
organizations, in recent years, they are taking a more active role in trying to include

sustainability in their business. Various companies are organizing activities that will

raise environmental awareness while others try to improve their packaging. An example

was when the Coca-Cola Company announced last year that will change their Sprite

bottles from green to clear. Its iconic bottles have been green for nearly 60 years and

although, these are already recyclable, the clear bottles are easier to recycle through

mechanical methods which are the most common.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, plastic pollution is something that everyone should take seriously.

The statistics is growing day-by-day as we ignore its long-term effects. It is a complex

problem that shows it is not only an environmental issue but also a matter of economic

status of one’s community that the government should also take notice for. People from

the low-sector community are the most affected by this issue. Not only are they the

reason why companies continue to produce such packaging but they are also the least

likely to afford having a zero waste lifestyle. Hence, eradicating this problem is not only

a responsibility of the consumers, rather, a collective effort from the citizens, the

government, and most especially the producers. The Philippine Government’s assertion

on passing bills about solid waste management should not only be a lip service. It is a

must to have political will on making such legislations a priority for a better community.

We already have a commendable law, what the government is expected to do is to work

on having an effective implementation of policies and to sustain such actions until the

problem has been curbed. Apart from the aforementioned suggestion, the following are
the specified recommendations that the government should take into consider that will

bring everyone towards a common goal:

1. The government should impose nationwide policies that shall pressure the

companies to propose cost-effective alternatives for packaging and require them

to give additional funding that shall support the solid waste management plans of

their city location.

2. Companies that will not comply with such policies, upon conviction, should pay a

fine not less than Five Hundred Thousand pesos (500,000) but not more than

One million pesos (1,000,000) during the first offense and suspension for the

officer-in-charge for not more than 3 months during the second offense.

3. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) together with

the Department of Health (DOH) should propose guidelines on which types of

plastics that are either recyclable or considered as residual waste to serve as a

reference for the consumers.

4. The government offices themselves should acclimatize a zero-waste policy to act

as role models amongst citizens who should do the same.

5. Heighten the severity of penalties on R.A. 9003 by including any government

officials who may or may not be in charge of the solid waste management

operations. As long as the official violates any prohibitions stated upon the said

law, the violators, upon conviction, shall face suspension for a minimum period of

three months depending on the type of violation.

Environmental awareness activities are good for educating individuals on how to

take care of our environment. However, such initiatives are mostly good for everyone’s
conscience only as it feeds us with a fact that we concerned for the environment. We

are already aware of the threats of improper waste disposal. We don’t need more

educational discussions only to make us realize again and again that it is our fault and

we can, apparently, do something about it. Yes, it is a no-brainer that we can actually do

something about it and we should do it now because all of us are liable to this growing

mess.
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