SBMA bans single-use plastic

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT – The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) will eliminate single-use plastic in workplaces here starting Oct. 1, as a pollution control measure.

SBMA Chairman and Administrator Wilma Eisma on Friday said the agency would ban plastic bags, straws, coffee stirrers, as well as soda and water bottles.

The ban will not apply to goods sold in their original packaging.

SBMA also urged business locators to join the “strawless” campaign and the recyclables collection program and to cooperate in an intensified anti-littering drive to be implemented next month as part of the agency’s War on Waste (WOW) campaign.

Eisma also reached out to SBMA employees in an advisory that states, “We should show a good example and walk the talk.”

Eisma said single-use plastics account for most of the marine pollution in the Subic Bay area, as could be seen from the trash that piles up periodically along the Freeport’s coastline after typhoons or heavy downpour.

“These plastic items are not only pollutive and harmful to wildlife and humans alike, but they also become an eyesore that negatively impacts on the image of Subic as a world-class Freeport,” Eisma said.

“There is already a standing ban on the use of plastic bags and Styrofoam packaging in the whole Subic Freeport, and now we are backing this up with the ban on single-use plastics and our strawless campaign because there is really an urgent need to save the environment,” she added.

It would also be illegal to dispose of litter from a boat or ship into the waters, and to transport uncovered, spilling, or leaking waste or waste containers within the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, said Amethya Dela Llana, SBMA Ecology Center manager.

The SBMA has set penalties for litterers: P1,500 for individual offenders and pet handlers, who would have the option to render four hours of community service; and P50,000 for companies or establishments per day until the violation is corrected.