EDITORIAL - Unintended consequences

In the effort to protect the environment, there can be unintended consequences. Preserving one species can endanger another; biofuels from certain products raise the price of animal feed and consequently the prices of certain food items. This is what the head of the Metro Manila Development Authority should consider before he pushes for the metro-wide adoption of a scheme now being implemented in Muntinlupa.

The city has banned the use of plastic bags in retail outlets, ostensibly to reduce the clogging of drainage and flooding, and to encourage the use of more environment-friendly bags that are washable or can be used several times such as the native woven bayong. The bayong isn’t cheap and doesn’t hold up well to washing or wet goods such as fish and meat. Meanwhile, the typical washable bag costs P100 – a fortune for the poor. Regular washing requires water and detergent, both of which don’t come cheap. Residents of Ayala Alabang can afford washable bags and all the fresh water and detergent they need, but these are additional burdens for the poor. Being environment-friendly can be expensive.

The Muntinlupa government should help its poorer constituents by requiring retailers, particularly the billionaire supermarket owners, who are reaping a windfall in savings from the city ban, to provide substitutes for the plastic bags instead of putting the burden on consumers. In many countries, the substitute is paper bag. But maybe Muntinlupa will also ban paper bags and the sale of toilet paper especially from virgin pulp, they’re bad for the trees.

The green effort of Muntinlupa is laudable, but the devil is always in the details. Plastic in fact can be recycled – a visit by Muntinlupa officials to any garbage dump, where scavengers leave plastic bags out to dry before selling to recycling firms, will show this. There’s a reason why plastic was developed and remains in use. It’s the same reason why fish and meat in some Muntinlupa supermarkets continue to be packed in plastic before being put in consumers’ bring-you-own bags.

What contributes to flooding is not plastic but the filthy ways of people who don’t know proper garbage disposal, whether it’s plastic, paper or organic waste. In Muntinlupa, the flooding is also caused by too many fish pens in Laguna de Bay, plus reclamation and encroachment on the natural floodplain by settlers and even by the Muntinlupa government. Maybe the new MMDA chief also has a wife or crony in the bayong business. But before he embraces the Muntinlupa scheme, he should consider all these factors first.