Reassessing the ban on plastics

EVERYMAN

By Manuel Bondad

Metro Manila local government units’ plastics ban policy needs to be reassessed.

Agence France-Presse reports that according to the World Bank, a “growing pile of trash from urban dwellers…in growing cities of low-income countries” point to a garbage catastrophe, that “throwing away” trash is an old concept.”

Obviously, plastic materials clog waterways. The Metro Manila Solid Waste Board laments; “Cigarette butts, plastic bags, food leftovers and other rubbish that uncaring people dump everywhere eventually clog the storm drains and waterways, causing flash floods…and damaging pumping stations.”

Combined, the Metro Manila Development Authority estimates that the metro’s 17 cities’ and municipalities’ trash are distributed as follows: kitchen waste 45 percent; paper 17 percent; plastics 16 percent; grass & wood 7 percent; metals 5 percent; textiles 4 percent.

Yet, vendors are reprimanded for peddling wares wrapped in plastic while commercial establishments go scot-free. Authorities need only to window shop to see plastics; sheets, bags, folders, wraps, soda bottles, bottled water, doormats etc. The incidence of hunger and poverty reportedly is up, and yet food scraps and paper contribute more than half of the monthly 700,000 tons of garbage in the metro!

That is why plastic products are top “detritus” in Manila Bay and Laguna Lake (and possibly Taal Lake). It takes one million years for a plastic bottle to breakdown in a landfill, 500 years for a tin can. (Source: 2011 Richmond, British Columbia Manual) Vancouver, BC is the world’s most reputable city based on a 2012 survey!

Paper and food scraps disintegrate within days, that is no secret, but pollute the waters too, but no longer seen by the naked eye. That is why “75.55 percent of the total volume of trash in Manila Bay are plastic discards, mostly plastic bags, and polystyrene (styrofoam) products.” According to the Metro Vancouver website plastics are grouped into polyethylene terephthalate (softdrink bottles); high density polyethylene (shampoo bottles); polyvinyl chloride (water bottles); low, soft density polyethylene (grocery, shopping bags); polypropylene (ketchup bottles); and polystyrene (foam cups).

Plastic is the “culprit” but never the “cold-hearted” amongst us.

The MMDA (17 cities and municipalities) should consider the Metro Vancouver Board’s (21 municipalities) policy “to shift responsibility from local government units and taxpayers for managing products at their end of life, to industry and consumers.”

The cement group’s participation in “co-processing waste” in Teresa, Rizal is a case in point. And the 17 local government units should speak in one voice. Anti- plastic police task force should exempt vendors and warn the irresponsible instead.

The concept of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, experts opine, is to gradually reduce trash that are meant for the landfills. This, local government units may embody in the growing anti-plastic policy movement. Did we know that based on 2003 numbers by the Asian Development Bank, some 6,700 tons daily is produced in the metro—equivalent to 2,016 dump trucks?

But that was a decade ago! After three decades, to gather 70 million tons (solid waste) would mean a beeline of garbage trucks “over halfway to the moon.”

Experts say, for 3R pilot projects to keep going,  segregation is  basic; distribution of recyclables  into major categories, newsprint, paper products, corrugated cardboard; containers; food scraps; yard trimmings into prescribed colored  boxes and bins. Exclusions; plastics, tissue, un-flattened boxes, diapers, flower pots, motor oil, paint containers, rocks, vehicle oil, aquarium etc. Special sites for special wastes a must: antifreeze empty containers; consumer electronics; mobile phones and batteries; fluorescent lights; hypodermic needles; pesticides.

According to “Waste not, burn not” penned by a Cebu-based concerned citizen, a list of the NEAPs (Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products) is yet to be released while permits for new landfills persist to the detriment of the public’s welfare. About P3.54 billion, allotted annually for waste collection in Metro Manila, is enormous and may continue to skyrocket with population explosion and minimal recycling. Only less than 11 percent is diverted from landfills and reportedly recycled. Other nations have reached 50 percent within years of aggressive implementation and a few more years to hit 70 percent to rise to 80 percent. The Ecological Waste Program and Philippine Clean Air Act were crafted 13 years ago yet.

With population per capita of 25,000 vs. metro Vancouver’s 1,000, we may have lost sight of the forest because of our rabid anti-plastic sentiment. With Metro Vancouver’s land area (2,878 sq kms), five times Metro Manila’s (630 sq kms), trash and litter in all forms could be accommodated in vast open spaces, but government did not and instead pursued the 3R’s relentlessly.

Will the plastic ban reduce trash in landfills? Will the 3Rs be embraced in Metro Manila as a way of life?

Manuel Q Bondad is a retired banker and corporate manager. Now a senior citizen, he tends to his small farm in Batangas.