A number of plastic manufacturers have reduced production after sales fell by half amid the ban on plastic bags in place in various local government units (LGUs), the Philippine Plastics Industry Association Inc (PPIA) said.
“Continuous reduction of working hours and days will eventually lead to closing shops and layoffs affecting the 175,000 direct and indirect workers in the industry,” PPIA said in a report obtained by InterAksyon.com.
In an interview, Stevenson Tavera of PPIA said working days have been reduced to five from six days a week during the industry’s better days. From 10-hour shifts, workers now have to do with five hours a day, Tavera said.
In a separate statement, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) claimed that 20 per cent of the industry workforce or about 35,000 “have been affected” by the ban on plastics. About 300 companies manufacture and process plastic products.
Tavera said the ban set to take effect in Manila next month will further reduce sales, as the city—a center of commerce with shopping hubs for dry goods such as Divisoria and Quiapo as well as major wet markets—accounts for half of the demand for plastic bags in the country.
PPIA data showed that a total of 226 cities and municipalities across the country are covered by bans on plastic bags and styrofoam.
In Metro Manila, 11 cities have put in place a ban on plastics, with six more considering similar ordinances.
Albay, Bulacan, Cavite, La Union and Leyte are implementing province-wide bans, while a similar provincial resolution is pending in Nueva Ecija.
According to PCCI vice president for environment Edgardo G. Lacson, the business group is “pursuing an advocacy supporting the plastic industry that is now besieged by the resolutions of LGUs banning the use of plastic bags in groceries, wet markets and many establishments.”
“PCCI has taken this advocacy in recognition of the adverse impact of the plastic ban to the industry, economy, and the misplaced concern on plastic as a harmful material to the environment,” Lacson said.
He said plastic bags are recyclable, these have “superior qualities” that make them “efficient and environment-friendly.”
According to Lacson, “the use of plastic bags is not the cause of flooding and clogging of drainage but is caused by the indiscriminate throwing of wastes or littering of the people.”
“There should be a stricter implementation of existing laws on anti-littering, waste segregation and collection,” he said.
To avoid flooding due to improper disposal of waste, Lacson said there should be “a concerted effort among all the sectors (government, business sector and nongovernment organisations) to establish a mechanism for the segregation, collection and recycling of plastic bags as this is the better alternative and the more sustainable solution to the solid waste problem and clogging of drainage systems experienced in the metropolis and in the country.”
Republic Act (RA) No. 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000 should be strictly and fully implemented by LGUs nationwide, he said.
“The national government should also immediately fund and establish the National Ecology Center that will establish guidelines on the use of environmentally-acceptable materials as required under Section 29 of R.A. 9003 and use this list as the sole reference guide for LGUs before they pass ordinances for the phase out of such materials officially identified as ‘non-environmentally acceptable,’” Lacson said.
Also, “any regulation, ban or charge system through tax or environmental levy on any packaging material should be backed by and based on a life cycle analysis and cost benefit analysis,” he said.
