Cebu Daily News

Tag : bag materials



Could anyone react positively to an emerging food and energy crisiswhen one is already saddled with high cost of living and getting bywith a monthly salary that can barely support the basic needs ofthe family? It may be a case of seeing a glass of water as eitherhalf full or half empty, but I think only a bleak economicsituation can force people to become aware of environmental issuesand seriously consider the benefits of simple living. This is notto trivialize the current scenario but environmentalists like myfriend and fellow CDN columnist Gloria Golly Ramos must bedelighted by recent events.
For example, after decades of intractability, Congress finallyobliged to regulate the use of plastic material with a proposal toimpose excise taxes for every plastic bag used in food and nonfoodbusiness establishments. Authored by Albay Representative AlFrancis Bichara, the bill seeks to impose a tax of P2.50 for everyplastic bag used. Under the proposed legislation, revenuesgenerated by the particular excise tax will be automaticallyallocated to the annual budget of the Department of Environment andNatural Resources in order to fund efforts to protect theenvironment.
In pushing for House Bill 4134 Representative Bichara took theopportunity to discuss the disadvantages of the non-biodegradablematerial and the similar approaches taken by governments inAustralia, China, Ireland, Bangladesh, Paris, Italy, Taiwan andTanzania. These countries have taken action either to discouragethe use of plastic bags or have it banned altogether.
Congressman Bicharas proposal is a bold move, noting that manypersonalities in the House represent business interests. As amatter of fact, I recall that the relevance of some is in themanufacture of plastics. Assuming the bill gets the necessarylegislative attention it urgently deserves, we can expect thatthese sectors will try their best to lessen the impact of theproposed measure. However, concerns about global warming and theever-increasing prices of fuel in the world market will weaken theresolve of plastic manufacturers to block the passage of thisproposal.
The Internet teems with information on the harmful effects ofplastic but of all the arguments against the use of this everydaybag and container, nothing strikes at the gut than imposing taxeson this material, which is made of petrochemicals, a costly andnon-renewable resource. The economic crunch will hopefully makepeople think twice about shelling out P2.50 or P5 or even P10 moreto buy the deadly container.
Still, people should also realize that the long-term effect of theuse of plastic bags is also related to mans survival. An articlefrom the Web says that nearly 80 percent of litter in the oceancomes from land-based sources, a good quantity of them consistingof plastics are washed off to the oceans via urban runoff, throughstorm drains, meaning the main source of plastic bags in the oceancomes from urban waste. Plastic litter in oceans is not just aneyesore but also exposes aquatic life to imminent danger throughentanglement, suffocation and ingestion. Did you know that whenDutch researchers dissected one aquatic animal, it contained morethan 1,600 pieces of plastic? According to Wikipedia: All seacreatures are threatened by floating plastic, from whales down tozooplankton.