MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte is considering banning single-use plastic, a major source of pollution.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the chief executive "floated the idea to ban the use of plastics, which according to him would require legislative action" during the 43rd Cabinet meeting Wednesday night.
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There are at least seven bills in the Senate and 20 bills in the House of Representatives seeking to regulate or ban single-use plastic products. All proposed legislation remain pending at the committee level.
Some local governments have passed ordinances to regulate the use of plastic products.
Plastic pollution is a problem in the Philippines. The country—along with China, Vietnam and Indonesia—is frequently listed among the top contributors to marine plastic pollution.
Every year, almost 59.8 billion pieces of plastic sachets are used in the Philippines, according to a study on the country’s pollution problem by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
The report also showed that more than 17 billion shopping bags are used across the country and 1.1 billion diapers are discarded every year. The use of smaller, thinner and often transparent plastic bags or labo in the country is pegged at 16.5 billion a year.
According to the Plastic Atlas by the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Break Free From Plastic, a total of 9.2 billion tons of plastic were produced between 1950 and 2017.