PLASTIC POLLUTION - WORLD WETLAND DAY / FEBRUARY 2, 2024 Plastics little the shoreline of Manila Bay on the portion of Las Piñas-Parañaque Wetland Park as the world mark World Wetland Day. According to study of zero-waste group Ecowaste Coalition in collaboration with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), De La Salle University-Dasmariñas, and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, around 90 percent of the 12 million pieces of marine litter collected from Manila Bay's coastline were plastics such as single-use food sachets and plastic bags. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES
The Philippines, which uses 163 million plastic sachets daily, is stepping up its efforts to tackle this plastic crisis by launching the Philippine National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP), which aims to foster collaboration between various stakeholders.
These include the private sector, civil society and development partners that will be part of an NPAP “steering board,” with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) serving as its chair.
“The challenge before us is immense, to say the least,” Environment Secretary Ma. Antonia Yulo Loyzaga said during the program on Thursday.
“The Philippines generates approximately 2.7 million metric tons of plastic waste each year. Tragically, a significant portion of this waste finds its way into our oceans, placing our country among the top reported contributors to marine plastic pollution globally,” she noted.
Given the potential “irrevocable damage” that plastic pollution could cause to the country’s vulnerable coastal communities and integral ecosystems, Loyzaga stressed that all sectors “need to be involved in the way we address waste management.”
One critical player in the country’s waste management system is the informal waste sector, which, according to the DENR, has been “insufficiently integrated” into the formal waste system.
However, with the launch of the NPAP, World Wild Fund executive director Katherine Custodio said: “A particular group I would like to single out and see the impact to benefit (are) the informal waste workers… We know there’s a lot of them who are doing this type of job.”
“We want to see them given due recognition. We want to see their roles formalized,” she added.
Extended Producers Responsibility
Another potential benefit of the NPAP is the strengthening of existing government policies regarding pollution, such as the Extended Producers Responsibility (EPR) Act of 2022 and the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
“Our current waste management system is guided by [these] two important laws,” said Undersecretary Jonas Leones. He explained that the Solid Waste Management Act, or Republic Act No. 9003, was enacted in order to hold local governments responsible for their respective solid waste.
However, some cities and municipalities “often lack the necessary infrastructure and financial resources” to perform such responsibility, which was why the EPR law, or RA 11898, was established. The EPR law now requires businesses or enterprises to be responsible for the lifecycle of their plastic waste.
Still, even with these two laws, challenges remain. Leones said the government still lacks comprehensive data systems regarding plastic waste, and faces logistical challenges when it comes to waste collection and recycling.
Leones said that stakeholders are now able to convene and engage in a dialogue on how to address plastic pollution through NPAP, which includes analyzing gaps in policies, such as the EPR law, and providing solutions.