Since the Philippines is one of the world’s largest producers of plastic wastes, Senator Cynthia Villar on Friday cited the urgency to ban the use of plastic as she welcomed reports indicating President Rodrigo Duterte was considering a nationwide ban on the use of plastic.
“With the President taking the lead in this campaign, I am confident we will be making a significant headway and finally remove us from that disconcerting title as one of the world’s largest producers of plastic wastes,” Villar said.
Villar made this statement during the tree-planting and clean-up activity she spearheaded in partnership with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources at Barangay 649, Gasangan, Baseco Compound.
Villar said a 2015 report on plastic pollution conducted by the international group Ocean Conservancy and McKinsey Center for Business and Environment ranked the Philippines as the third biggest source of plastic leaking into the oceans, following China and Indonesia.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has also warned that if plastic pollution is not addressed, by 2050, there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean.
“The fish will eat all the plastic and they will all die and our ocean will become virtual desert,” Villar said.
Villar authored Senate Bill No. 333 or the Single-Use Plastic Product Regulation Act of 2019, which seeks to regulate the manufacturing, importation, and use of single-use plastic products.
With our dependence in agriculture, she said plastic pollution also poses a grave threat in our food security.
She also cautioned against disaster risks and hazards arising from plastic pollution may put farms at risk of flooding resulting in wastage of agricultural products along with its threats to a balanced ecology.
“Micro plastics leaked in our bodies of water may also put public health at risk as it gets into our food chain,” Villar added.