MANILA, Philippines – Single-use plastics will now be banned in all government offices in the country, according to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
In a statement issued Monday, the DENR said the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) has approved Resolution No. 1363, series of 2020, banning “unnecessary” single-use plastics.
It covers national government agencies, local government units, and all other government controlled-offices.
The resolution directs the DENR to “prepare and implement” the ban on single-use plastic products, including cups less than 0.2 millimeter in thickness, drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks, and knives.
The ban also covers “labo” or thin and translucent plastic bags, and thin-filmed sando bags lower than 15 microns.
“The NSWMC resolution is a major step to curb the use of single-use plastic items that pollute our waterways, kill marine life and contribute to our country’s increasing solid waste,” Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu, who chairs the NSWMC, said.
The DENR will come up with specific guidelines for the implementation of the plastics ban, which forms part of the government’s “solid waste avoidance and minimization strategy,” according to Cimatu.
DENR Undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and LGUs Concerns Benny Antiporda, meanwhile, defended the NSWMC for initially including only eight single-use plastic items in the ban.
“It was the decision of the NSWMC to come up with a balanced judgment on the use of single-use plastics by taking into consideration that we can only ban those that have available alternatives,” said Antiporda, who is also the alternate NSWMC chair.
He cited Section 29 of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000, which provides that “‘non-environmentally acceptable products shall not be prohibited unless the [NSWMC] first finds that there are alternatives which are available to consumers at no more than 10 percent greater cost than the disposable product.”
The NSWMC is an inter-agency body under the Office of the President mandated to oversee the implementation of solid waste management plans and prescribe policies to achieve the law’s objectives.
It is composed of the DENR, the Department of Agriculture, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Science and Technology, and Department of Trade and Industry.
Its members also include the League of Cities of the Philippines, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Philippine Information Agency, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and representatives from the recycling and manufacturing/packaging sectors.
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