Use of plastic shopping bags might be banned

Half of the volume of garbage in the city usually consists of plastic wastes, some of which are stuck in the drainage system, prompting city councilors to push for a possible ban on the use of plastic shopping bags and similar products.

Councilors Augustus Pe Jr. and Roberto Alcoseba said they have been inclined to support the planned enactment of an ordinance prohibiting the use of plastic shopping bags and other similar products.

Councilor Pe also added that “Hasol g’yod ning plastic bags. Almost 50 per cent of those garbage brought to the landfill are plastics. Maoy nakapuno sa landfill kay dili man malata.”

Alcoseba said he would sponsor such ordinance, possibly in coordination with councilor Nestor Archival, chairman of the City Council’s committee on environment, with the hope that this will minimize, if not totally solve, the problem of drainage in the city.

A resident of the city has also suggested that, aside from the plastic shopping bags commonly used in department stores among others, the use of plastic for iced water should be also regulated.

“Most people after consuming the iced water just throw the cellophane indiscriminately, which easily clogs our drainage system,” said a resident who favors the ban of plastic bags and similar products.

He said that plastic bags only became popular because these are cheaper than the paper bag, commonly known as “bulsita.”

Chief city planner Nigel Paul Villarete has strongly recommended for an ordinance so that the drainage flow would be improved.

The ban on the use of plastic shopping bag and other cellophane bags has had a first in the Philippines already, and this was in Sta. Barbara, a town in Iloilo.

Records also showed that these kind of materials for shopping and other uses are no longer allowed in other countries, where drainage were no longer a problem. — Rene U. Borromeo/RAE