Cebu City Council to tackle implementing rules

Stores in Cebu City will no longer be allowed to use plastic bags on Saturdays  by September this year.

That’s the target date to apply  implementing rules for  City Ordinance 2343 or the “No Plastic Saturday Ordinance of Cebu City.”

In the second year of implementation, the ban will extend to Wednesdays.

Plastic bags are identified as a main cause of clogged sewage drains and waterways, a problem that manifests in flashfloods all over the city after a heavy rain like last night’s downpour that left main roads in Metro Cebu under water.(See story on page 2).

Implementing rules are being finalized by the author, Councilor Nida Cabrera, after a series of consultations with business owners and retailers, who initially resisted the ban on using cheap, convenient plastic bags.

Over three years in the               making, the ordinance for a partial ban was passed by the Cebu City Council on Dec. 12, 2012 and signed into law by Mayor Michael Rama last January 16.

Violators face a P2,000 fine on the first year of implementation and a higher P5,000 fine on the second year along with a six-month imprisonment and possible revocation of an establishment’s business permit.

“It’s been a long while since we passed the ordinance but we haven’t implemented it yet because we were drafting the implementing rules and regulations. We were also meeting with the different mall managers and vendors to explain the ordinance,” Cabrera told Cebu Daily News.

The main sponsors were Councilor Cabrera and Edgar Labella, who is now vice mayor.

It takes a few minutes to use a plastic bag, but once discarded it takes up to 1,000 years for the bag to degrade, filling up garbage dumpsites, unlike paper or a bayong made of leaves which decomposes.

As stated in its purpose, “This ordinance is promulgated to eliminate the widespread use of plastic shopping bags for packaging; prevent pollution of waterways which hurts the marine life; eliminate clogging of sewages that causes flooding; prevent chocking of landfills; also raise the level of public awareness and responsibility in the use of shopping bags as well as to increase the (city’s) revenues in solid waste management.”

The ban was welcomed by some business groups at the forefront of advocating the use of recyclable bags, like the Cebu chapter of the Philippine Retailers Association.

PRA Cebu chairperson Melanie Ng said Cebu retailers were prepared for the ban.

“We were consulted even before, by then councilors Nestor Archival and Nida Cabrera. That’s why PRA Cebu launched ‘Every Bag Counts’,” she said, a campaign for member stores to use alternative bags of paper or other recylable materials.

The fact that it’s not a total ban, she said, should encourage retaliers to support the ordinance.

“It’s going to be impemented by phases. Our malls and supermarkets in Cebu City have long implemented the once-a-week use of paper bags or conduct promos or give discounts to shoppers who use eco-bags or biodegradable bags,” said Ng.

Stores in Ayala Center and SM City are an example.

Philip Tan, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the root cause of the problem is poor solid waste management.

“In Europe, people bring their own shoppping bags and clean their own mess. We, in the Philippines, let others serve us. It’s not the fault of the plastic but the fault of irresponsible and undisciplined people,”he said.

He said the initial once-a-week plastic ban would mean additional cost to retailers and that he hoped the cost of alternative materials for shopping bags would decrease.

Cebu Business Club president Gordon Alan “Dondi” Joseph agreed that consumer habits were a factor.

“If we had good solid waste managment and recylcing, we wouldn’t need to ban plastics. Huge plastic wastage is a symptom of the problem which is poor waste management.”

In a forum on air and water pollution last Friday in City Hall, where findings of scientistis of the University of San Carlos were discussed, one official lamented the widespread use of plastic.

“Is it possible for Cebu City to ban plastics? I can see plastic floating 10 kilometers from Cebu’s shorelines. It creates a very, very bad impression of Cebu,” said Dr. Edgar Solana, director of the Pollution Control division of the Cebu Institute of Technology.

In the forum, Cabrera explained that the city would schedule days for a ban on plastic bags to regulate its distribution. She will present the proposed IRR to the City Council in August.

Under the IRR, the city will have a program to buy used plastic bags at 50 centavos per kilo.

Section 8 of the ordinance ecourages business establishments to give incentives to customers to bring their own non-plastic shopping bags and provide disposal bins for plastic and other wastes. The used bags would then be turned over to an accredited member of the Philippine Plastic Industry Association, Inc. for recycling. /with reports fROM Cris EVERT LATO