Metrowide plastic ban in place by 2013 - MMDA

[Retz]

Paper bag na ang gamit sa grocery in festival mall. Pati na rin southmall. Bring your own paper bag.

[dieselNUBI]

Totoo naman na pwede ma recycle ang plastic at styro. Pero hindi ganon ka responsible ang taong bayan. So
The next best thing to do and more practical is just to implement a ban on plastics.
The gov't is assumming that pinoys would do the same with their paper bags, just throwing them away.

[testament11]

Totoo naman na pwede ma recycle ang plastic at styro. Pero hindi ganon ka responsible ang taong bayan. So
The next best thing to do and more practical is just to implement a ban on plastics.
The gov't is assumming that pinoys would do the same with their paper bags, just throwing them away.

Eto nga ang mali. Ewan ko kung bakit ganun nalang sila. Why not implement strict rules. Yun tipong pag hindi mo ni-recycle ang basura mo, may multa kang 100k petot at kulong na 2 years sa first offense palang. Wala kasi tayong initiative na mag-recycle. Kulang kasi tayo sa disiplina.

[testament11]

And kung ganun din lang na itatapon din ng Pinoy ang mga paper bags nila kung saan-saan, then the problem on waste pollution is not solved. Wala din, wala din itong pinagka-iba sa kung plastic o styro ang gamit.

[shadow]

Banning of plastic and styro eh ginagawa na sa ibang bansa Kahit na mahigpit sila sa segregation..this is good IMO

[ghosthunter]

Paper is no better for the environment – plastics industry official
GMA News OnlineGMA News Online – 21 hours ago

Contrary to popular belief, paper is no friendlier to the environment than plastic, according to Crispian Lao, president and spokesperson of the Philippine Plastics Industry Association.

“One ton of paper requires the cutting of 17 trees; none is cut for plastic. One supermarket paper bag uses one gallon of clean water, which is all that is needed to make 116 plastic bags. Paper uses as much as five times more energy than a comparable plastic production,” Lao explained in a March 8 statement.

The statement criticized the ban on plastics, saying it has raised bigger environmental issues and negatively affected the labor sector.

"[The plastics ban] has severely affected the industry," Lao told GMA News Online in a telephone interview Friday.

"We're not too much concerned with income, but employment... Twenty to forty percent of the sector is affected, and we are trying to keep them employed on a rotation basis," he said.

The statement also claimed that plastic has been “demonized,” giving people the idea that paper is better for the environment.

“It is not. This is the reason developed countries are taking a balanced approach. People are given a choice between plastic and paper because both are needed, and have their pros and cons,” Lao said.

He claimed that a ban on plastic is not the solution to the country’s flood problem, saying “… floods during typhoons Ondoy, Pedring, and Sendong were caused not by plastic but by global warming, which has generated more violent typhoons and unusually heavy rainfall.”

“All this misimpression started with simple floods, and it was very convenient to blame plastic because it was the most visible. But… we have poor drainage systems. And the plastic is there because we refuse to segregate. We must segregate and recycle. The solution is that simple,” he added.

Lao also highlighted the advantages of using plastic products over paper, saying that aside from being able to carry a heavier load, plastic bags can also carry both dry and wet contents.

“All we need to do is to be responsible users and disposers of plastic. To ban it is to deny ourselves, unnecessarily, a ready convenience in favor of paper that causes new problems for us,” he said.

However, Greenpeace toxics campaigner Francis Dela Cruz said in a separate interview Friday with GMA News Online that it is important to consider a “life cycle analysis” when measuring the environmental impacts of plastic and paper.

“If it’s just plastics manufacturing, they have a point,” Dela Cruz admitted.

“Pero saan nagpupunta ang plastic pagkatapos gamitin? If it’s not recycled or downcycled, it pollutes the ground. Paper degrades, the earth can take it back, it’s organic… ‘Yung plastic, nabaon na tayo lahat, nabulok na tayo lahat… ‘yung plastic andyan pa rin,” he said.

Dela Cruz agreed that responsible use and disposal of plastics can help lessen their environmental impact, but that plastics manufacturers “have to show the goods for it.”

Manufacturers “have to have a recovery program, a take-back program,” he said and explained that most recycling efforts are currently made by informal wastepickers.

Ultimately, the problem is “not an environment issue, it’s a labor issue,” according to the Greenpeace campaigner.

“It’s about industry. I’m not against creating employment opportunities, but to say ‘let’s get employment now, and let’s trash the future…’ I don’t think that’s fair… There’s a better way of creating industry,” Dela Cruz added. — VS, GMA News

SOURCE: Paper is no better for the environment

[yebo]

the majority of pulp for paper manufacturing come from trees grown in tree farms, not from forests. the rest come from recycled paper and trimmings from the wood industry (lumber and furniture manufacturing wastes). so the argument that paper is bad because it is made from trees is wrong since it does not affect the trees in the forests.

there was a time when people used bayongs and baskets to the market. supermarkets also used the cartons that their goods came in to package what their customers bought. i think doing that again would greatly reduce the need for plastics. nabuhay naman nuon na hindi gumagamit ng plastic, kaya din yun ngayon.

also, if you can carry it with your 2 hands why would you need a bag (plastic or paper)? maarte lang naman kasi gusto pa minsan yung malaking plastic bag e kaya naman hawakan na lang. meron pa nga ako nakasabay sa wilcon 1 roll ng teflon tape lang binili pina-plastic pa. i regularly refuse a plastic bag if i can carry the items i bought with my 2 hands.

[Monseratto]

The treehuggers have a point. Most of the time, plastic bags are thrown and don't get recycled. Also its not disposed off properly and end up sometime polluting and clogging waterways. Better to encourage people to use those green reusable supermarket bags or those old bayongs instead.

[ghosthunter]

So how can we buy some fresh meat, chicken or fish? ... wrap it in paper bags? If I buy a quarter kilo of ground pork, I would be damned if I would let someone place it in a paper bag.

To reduce waste plastic bags, just have a store policy of no plastic bags for small or single purchases. Example, places like convenience stores where most people buy one or two items only, no plastic bags will be given unless the purchase is too many to carry with hands (example buying a six bags of chips and and two cans of soda).

Its is stupid to ban plastic bags outright.

Treehuggers don't care if they cause chaos in the localized economy as long as they get their agenda to the public.

[CoDer]

So how can we buy some fresh meat, chicken or fish? ... wrap it in paper bags? If I buy a quarter kilo of ground pork, I would be damned if I would let someone place it in a paper bag.

To reduce waste plastic bags, just have a store policy of no plastic bags for small or single purchases. Example, places like convenience stores where most people buy one or two items only, no plastic bags will be given unless the purchase is too many to carry with hands (example buying a six bags of chips and and two cans of soda).

Its is stupid to ban plastic bags outright.

Treehuggers don't care if they cause chaos in the localized economy as long as they get their agenda to the public.

It was stupid indeed.