The Philippines was tagged as the world’s third-largest ocean polluter in a 2015 report on plastic pollution by the Ocean Conservancy charity and the McKinsey Centre for Business and Environment, behind China and Indonesia.
Our country produces 2.7 million tons of plastic waste annually and 20 percent of that, or 500,000 tons, end up in the ocean. What most Filipinos don’t realize is that plastic harms the undersea environment and is deadly to marine creatures that ingest or get entangled in them.
Last week, news broke of a dead Cuvier’s beaked whale washed up in Davao City. It had 40 kilograms of plastic in its stomach. This is said to be the biggest amount of plastic found in an animal to date.
Clearly we as a people are slobs. We also use too much plastic.
With environmental concerns at the forefront of our consciousness in this age of climate change, action is gradually being taken on an individual and societal level to reverse the trend of profligate waste through the adoption of zero-waste practices.
In May 2014, then-President Benigno Aquino Jr. signed Presidential Proclamation No. 760, declaring January as ‘Zero-Waste Month’ in line with the principles of environmental awareness and action embodied in Republic Act No. 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
The proclamation defines “zero waste” as “an advocacy that promotes designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, and to conserve and recover all resources, and not indiscriminately dispose or burn them.”
It states further that zero waste “is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.”
While there still isn’t a nationwide law that imposes a total ban on the use of plastic, some LGUs and establishments around the country have begun to be more sustainable by forbidding the use of plastic bags by storekeepers. Shoppers are encouraged to bring reusable bags. Similarly, some coffee shops support diners who bring their own tumblers and bamboo or metal straws.
Last week, eco-activists in Iligan City were able to bring to third and final public hearing their request for a comprehensive plastic ban ordinance. Cooki Echavez-Trinidad, who had been working on this since first quarter of 2018, said on Facebook, “I am an ordinary citizen and this only proves that all of us can lobby for a plastic ban ordinance in our cities and municipalities.”
Likewise, individuals and collectives are springing up all over the country practicing zero-waste methods. Here are a few ways that illustrate the keywords reduce-reuse-recycle, methods by which individuals can significantly reduce their output of garbage and use of plastics.
Reduce:
· Bring a mess kit consisting of metal spoon, fork, and chopsticks and a reusable tumbler, and refuse plastic utensils from fast-food places.
· Bring your own containers to the supermarket and palengke to hold your purchases.
· Use cloth menstrual pads or menstrual cups.
Reuse:
· Compost food scraps to use for growing vegetables.
· Use ice cream containers and jars for food storage, tin cans and boxes as planters or for storage of knick-knacks.
· Refurbish old furniture with paint and fabric.
Recycle:
· Use a glass cutter to cut bottles into tumblers, lampshades, vases, or decorative elements.
· Repurpose old building materials into décor or furniture.
In a bid to reduce the use of plastic packaging, some brands are offering a refilling service, like Sabon Depot in Bacoor, Cavite, that refills your container with dishwashing liquid at P25 per liter.
Another brand tried this but their implementation needs work. Last weekend, Unilever opened All Things Hair Refillery Stations at Trinoma and Glorietta. Some netizens said they weren’t allowed to use their own clean bottles unless they were the same as the Unilever variants at the station. The station supplied empty Refillery-labeled bottles at P10 each.
Others reported being given the Refillery bottles for free in trade for their empty plastic bottles. However, the use of new plastic bottles is still not a zero-waste move.
Why not refill the customers’ bottles, whatever they may be, as long as they’re clean and dry? If the company is worried about contamination, they can provide disinfectant at the Refillery Station. Still, it’s a good start, and something that other brands can emulate.
In Europe and the US, there are zero-waste stores where you bring your own containers for your purchases, whether produce or cereal or coffee. There is also a growing trend there toward mending and fixing things rather than buying new.
Through the nationwide adoption of these and other zero-waste practices, the country can reduce the amount of plastic and resources it uses and cut the amount of garbage sent to landfills and sewers.
Let us get off the list of world slobs and on to the roster of nations that care for and preserve its environment.
*** Waste not, want not. / FB and Twitter: @DrJennyO
