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.

[yebo]

maybe i'm too much older than you guys because i do remember the days when meat, chicken and fish were wrapped in paper or paper bags at the wet markets. they use the glossy paper from magazines for making the bags. also they have the meat and chicken hanging from hooks so that much of the blood has dripped and does not get the paper too wet. (in the supermarkets they used paper bags made from "wax paper" for these items.) still in the wet markets, for the "dry" items like vegetables, dried fish, tinapa, mongo, salt, etc. they used ordinary newspaper rolled into a conical shape (imagine the packaging of a cornetto ice cream) or folded and pasted into an envelope using "gawgaw". i had an aunt who used to augment her public teacher's salary by making paper bags from newspapers and sold those to the market vendors. that was until the plastic bags came along, and that was not too long ago as she was still making those paper bags in the early 1980s.

just sharing to you young folks who never experienced this, not arguing. i'm just saying that we did it before, we can still do it now.

[shadow]

yun mga wet items pwede plastic pero isa Lang hinde na pwede padoble,

[Jiggs]

Call me a Treehugger...but I would be proud to be one. And correct...all cities that ban plastics are not total outright banning of it. Selected fews like wet items are still allowed to use it. The wanton use of plastics just for the sake of profit and convenience ang kino control. We here in Batangas City finally also adopted what Muntinglupa did. Siempre sa una maraming angal ang tao..but konti konting namindset na magdala sila ng reusable bags or face the burden of carrying it in a fragile paper bags. There were already a big improvement in the amount of collection of garbage according to the city administrator. Somebody had to brave the first step. Well eventually plastics will also end if the hydrocarbons runs dry.

[ghosthunter]

maybe i'm too much older than you guys because i do remember the days when meat, chicken and fish were wrapped in paper or paper bags at the wet markets. they use the glossy paper from magazines for making the bags. also they have the meat and chicken hanging from hooks so that much of the blood has dripped and does not get the paper too wet. (in the supermarkets they used paper bags made from "wax paper" for these items.) still in the wet markets, for the "dry" items like vegetables, dried fish, tinapa, mongo, salt, etc. they used ordinary newspaper rolled into a conical shape (imagine the packaging of a cornetto ice cream) or folded and pasted into an envelope using "gawgaw". i had an aunt who used to augment her public teacher's salary by making paper bags from newspapers and sold those to the market vendors. that was until the plastic bags came along, and that was not too long ago as she was still making those paper bags in the early 1980s.

just sharing to you young folks who never experienced this, not arguing. i'm just saying that we did it before, we can still do it now.

Yes, I remember having glossy paper and waxed paper to wrap wet market items. But the point of using recycled "paper bags" would be lost because glossy paper and wax paper does not biodegrade. Not to mention, the question of hygiene because you don't know how the old magazines were handled before and during their conversion into recycled "paper bags".

Just sharing.

[pop3corn]

i really don't get this plastic bans. napakahirap mag-akyat ng paperbags lalo na pag more than 5 bags sa elevator pag pauwi nasa condo

and wtf is Pasig City Govt up to, pag Friday bawal ang straw. i ordered a Cheeseburger meal w/ coke, fries and burger. yun coke nakalagay sa plastic cup tapos bawal daw straw pag friday, ang hirap mag-drive kaya pag sa drive-in ka bumili

puro kakagaguhan lang yan mga treehuggers/i care for the govt. kaekekan, if you really want to save the environment, exercise and become fit. sa sobrang dami ng obese ngaun at ang bagal kumilos at kailangan naka-aircon lagi ang katawan, yun di nila nakikita

let's face it our environment will only get worse whether we ban plastics or not, bec. we are getting overpopulated. anywhere around the world this is happening na. the thingis nature will try to correct itself sooner or later. so if you wanna be ready for that correction, be ready, be fit, and if you're lucky enough baka ma-survive mo elements. no amount of moral environmental concern can spare you from nature's wrath. it's not as if you clamor for green living now, eh nature will excuse you.

that's one reason why Al Gore was never respected nor taken seriously, He always supports green living pero I think He is like 200 pounds overweight. lakas siguro kumain nun hence lakas kumunsumo ng resources

----

if Ondoy II happens, plastic bag or no plastic bag / clogs or no clogs , if the floods will devastate it will.

[testament11]

Someone told me na political will ang nasa likod ng mga banning na ito. Why, may isang pulitiko na may negosyo ng papel. Kunwaring treehugger slash i care for mother earth, pero ang nasa likod nito, para mag-boom ang business niya.

Like I said sa banning nito before. Di kailangan. Kailangan dito, disiplina ng tao, matutong mag-salansan ng mga basura. Wag maging close minded dahil alam nila na pwedeng i-recycle ang plastic. In fact, doon sa aming company ay nag-uumpisa na kami sa recycling plant ng styro. Once ito ay mabuksan na, ito na ang magiging sagot sa mga demand nila para hindi na tuluyang i-ban ang paggamit ng plastics.

[niky]

Well... how many politicians own paper businesses? This ban is popular in many different cities across the Philippines, whatever the local mayors' or governors' businesses are (mostly construction... ).

One of the main issues is not just biodegradability. If that were all, then waxy paper and glossy paper should be banned, too. Petroleum based plastics do biodegrade over time. The big issue is that plastic bags maintain their shape and strength for much longer. The stretchy, strong plastic can cover and block drainange pipes, smother small animals, birds and fish and cover and kill plants.

I agree that going to waxy paper for wet stuff is not the answer. The answer is forcing a mandate on biodegradable plastics. SM's biodegradable shopping bags should get a free pass from plastic bans. These actually fall apart over time (we should know, we collect and recycle plastic) into smaller pieces that are less harmful to the environment and which will eventually biodegrade more easily.

An all out ban is useless. Just like the one-way streets that allow bicycles, then motorcycles... then tricycles... then whoever lives just half-a-block down the road... to counterflow. For the same reason, an all-out ban has to make an exception for some items. Then more. Then more. Eventually it becomes useless.

[tomboy]

Sa mga namamalengke magdala kayo ng lock-it tapos doon nyo ilagay ang isda or karne na bibilhin nyo. Tapos ilagay nyo sa bayong tapos ang problema. Obviously yung lock-it kahit plastic hindi nyo sigurado tinatapon yun.

Ito isa pa ginagawa ko yung mga plastic bottle ng smart-c, gatorade....etc hindi ko tinatapon. Binibigay ko restaurant ng friend ko para pag timplahan ng dishwashing liquid. Marami kasi resto nagstock ng marami plastic bottle para pagtimplahan ng dishwashing. Ako ginagawa ko lagayan ng coins sa business 5cents, 10cents, 25cents....etc

[ghosthunter]

and wtf is Pasig City Govt up to, pag Friday bawal ang straw. i ordered a Cheeseburger meal w/ coke, fries and burger. yun coke nakalagay sa plastic cup tapos bawal daw straw pag friday, ang hirap mag-drive kaya pag sa drive-in ka bumili

Someone here might mention that we folks might be too young to remember that we used to use waxpaper straws back in the "good old days". Unfortunately I do remember those paper straws also will self-unroll itself after a few minutes in your drink. It also gave the drink a disgusting paper taste to your drink as well.

[shadow]

charge extra kumg magpapadoble ng plastic like it other countries