Makati lets shops use up stock of plastic bags, styros till December

Like the packaging materials it seeks to phase out, the Makati City government is turning out to be just as flexible.

Days after announcing the ban on plastic bags and polystyrene containers that is supposed to take effect next week, Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay allowed commercial establishments until December to use up all these items in their inventory.

Binay reminded shop owners to submit an inventory of the nonbiodegradable packaging that they still have to allow inspectors to monitor the depletion of their stock.

“For now, the city is allowing the use of plastic packaging to give business owners time to deplete their inventory.  However, starting January 2013, the city government will fully enforce the ban,” Binay said in a statement on Thursday.

Upon checking with the city’s environment services department, the mayor learned that no commercial establishment in the city managed to comply with the city’s solid waste management code which required them to submit quarterly reports on the nonbiodegradable materials they use.

At least 45 teams under the newly formed plastics monitoring task force will check the packaging inventory of commercial establishments—from sari-sari stores to supermarkets and department stores— starting Tuesday next week. Miko Morelos