Senator urges gov’t to implement total plastic ban

MANILA, Philippines—Senator Loren Legarda is urging the government to implement a total plastic ban even before the proposed measure is enacted into law.

Legarda, chairman of the Senate committee on climate change, is the author of Senate Bill 2759 or the Total Plastic Bag ban Act, which seeks  to prohibit the  use of non-biodegradable plastic bags by groceries, supermarkets, public markets, restaurants, fast food chains, department stores, retail stores and other similar establishments all over the  country.

But pending action by Congress, Legarda said the national government can set an example by prohibiting the use of non-biodegradable plastic bags in their respective offices while local government units can start by creating their own laws and ordinances in their respective jurisdictions.

“As servants of the Filipino people, we should set an example and show our citizens that this plastic bag ban can effectively be done in all our public schools, hospitals, and government offices so the whole country will easily follow suit. All we need is an effective model as precedent,” she said in a statement on Thursday.

“I also call on our local government units to fast-track the passage of their own version of the total plastic bag ban. We need to ensure that this new lifestyle and way of thinking is implemented in all households in the barangay (village) and municipal levels,” she said.

Legarda noted that the city government of Muntinlupa is already implementing the total plastic bag ban while the municipality of San Francisco in Camotes Island, Cebu has recently implemented the  “no free plastic” program to force citizens to use reusable bags.

“There are numerous alternatives to non-biodegradable plastic bags. We have our baskets, bayongs, eco-bags, paper bags, cloth bags or katsa, bags made of recycled tetra packs and many others. We just have to be innovative and ingenious in finding substitute packaging materials or containers,” she further said.