The National Solid Waste Management Commission under the Office of the President has already approved a resolution to ban single-use plastics in all government offices.
Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu said the commission passed NSWMC Resolution 1363 of 2020, which ordered the Environment department to “prepare and implement” the ban on the use of “unnecessary” single-use plastic products by national government agencies, local government units, and all other government-controlled offices.
“The NSWMC resolution is a major step to curb the use of single-use plastic items that pollute our waterways, kill marine life and contribute to our country’s increasing solid waste,” Cimatu said.
The DENR will come up with specific guidelines in the implementation of the ban that forms part of the government’s “solid waste avoidance and minimization strategy.”
Those covered by the ban are cups less than 0.2 millimeter in thickness, drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks, knives, “labo” or thin and translucent plastic bags, and thin-filmed sando bags lower than 15 microns.
Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and LGUs Concerns Benny Antiporda defended the NSWMC for initially including only eight single-use plastic items in the ban.
“It was the decision of the NSWMC to come up with a balanced judgment on the use of single-use plastics by taking into consideration that we can only ban those that have available alternatives,” Antiporda said in a statement.