THE Senate committee on environment, natural resources and climate change is inclined to regulate rather than issue an outright ban on single-use plastics.
“Baka impossible na i-ban kasi wala naman akong naririnig na replacement for single-use plastic (A ban might be impossible because alternatives are not available),” Senator Cynthia A. Villar, who chairs the committee, said in a briefing Tuesday.
“What we want is for them to recycle.”
Ms. Villar said the Committee will be drafting a consolidated bill and hold one more hearing before it passes the measure out to the plenary.
The panel tackled measures regulating single-use plastic or prohibiting the use of certain plastic products.
Ms. Villar said at this point the bill will provide for the inclusion of waste management as part of the criteria being considered for recognizing local government units with the Seal of Good Local Governance.
The measure will also contain a chapter that will focus on hospital waste, which she noted should be handled differently than other waste products.
The provisions include incentives to plastic producers that exert effort to collecting waste plastic in the environment and establish information and education campaigns.
“It’s just fair that if there are entities who are doing their fair share in trying to recover their plastic from the environment, there must be some proper incentives,” Kristoffer Rada of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) said at the hearing. He chairs ECCP’s environment and water committee.
The ECCP also supported a provision to hold an information drive to educate the public on recycling.
“We realized even if all member companies try to make their packaging recyclable, if as individuals, we do not do our share, then all of this will go to waste.” — Charmaine A. Tadalan
