Antipolo joins no styrofoam, plastic drive

Around 1, 000 establishments, including malls and big grocery stores, in Antipolo City are now complying with a city ordinance banning the use of styrofoam containers and regulating the distribution of plastic bags.

Jocelyn Masangkay, officer in charge of the city environment and waste management office (CEWMO), said it took the city government two years for  City Ordinance No. 2009-370 to be approved in 2009 since there was a  two-year allowance before its full-scale implementation.

“We carried out several information campaigns before the actual implementation. This is the reason why the implementation of the ordinance met no resistance from the business owners,” Masangkay said in a phone interview.

According to her, 92 percent of the 1,261 establishments that the CEWMO team monitored between November 18 and December 14 complied with the ordinance.

Among these establishments were big malls and stores like SM City Masinag, Ultra Mega, Shopwise, Budget Lane, National Bookstore, Mercury Drug and convenience and drug stores.

She said the local environment office was also checking whether the city’s two big public markets were following the ordinance.

“When we say compliance, this means stores selling dry goods must not distribute or use plastic and styrofoam for dry goods. Establishments can only use plastic bags as the primary packaging material of wet goods,” Masangkay said.

Masangkay’s team will monitor the establishment’s compliance every day. Violators face a P500 fine for the first offense.

“We are still hoping that the 100 other establishments who were given violation tickets will soon comply with the city ordinance,” she said.