Plastic pollution
FILIPINO taxpayer’s money – possibly billions of pesos – will have to be spent to address plastic pollution, which has become one of the world’s most pressing environmental issues.
But why should the Philippines, a Southeast Asian nation of impoverished people, spend that much at this time of “economic hardship” brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic?
It’s because plastic pollution threatens food safety, human health, and coastal tourism and contributes to climate change, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Citing data from the IUCN, House Speaker Lord Allan Velasco said that every year, an estimated 300 million tons of plastic products are produced worldwide, including the Philippines.
Of the total, eight million tons end up into the world’s oceans, threatening the ecosystem of marine wildlife.
Velasco said the raging COVID-19 pandemic has even made the situation worse, with the production and importation in large quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE).
He called on the people to take steps to address the worsening problem, noting that plastic products have reached the bowels of the Emden Deep in the Philippine Trench.
The Emden Deep is the deepest part of the 10,400-meter deep Philippine Trench, a unique marine feature east of Mindanao.
Speaker Velasco is one of the authors of House Bill 9147, which seeks to regulate the production, importation, sale, use, collection, recycling and disposal of single-use plastic products.
The proposed law also provides steps for the eventual phasing out of single-use plastic products.
And it is heartening to know that the House of Representatives is committed to find better and more efficient solutions to address the problem of plastic pollution.
