The Department of Finance (DOF), as the Chairperson-designate of the Climate Change Commission (CCC), supports the movement to ban single-use plastics nationwide as a way to advance sustainable solid waste practices and curb plastics pollution.
It issued this statement in stressing that the climate emergency should be addressed with the same sense of urgency that the world has been treating the global health and economic crises unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has underscored the need for governments to ensure that waste management systems are well supported to deal with current and future plastics waste, especially with the significant increase in plastics pollution from home deliveries and medical wastes amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The perennial risks and hazards from plastics pollution and its future impact entail higher costs and more resources, thus requiring urgent action from the government. The worsening pollution and influx of natural hazards aggravate the risks for our communities, the economy, and the environment.
Responding to the call for sustainable waste management, many local government units (LGUs) have already issued their respective ordinances regulating or banning the use of single-use plastics. Government agencies have also adopted national policies to support this cause.
As the Chairperson-designate of the CCC, the DOF fully supports the enactment of legislative measures under the House Committee on Ecology and the Senate Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Climate Change to phase out single-use plastics and ensure extended producer’s responsibility that will cover the large scale collection, sorting, and recycling or reusing of plastics.
The Department’s support for these legislative measures is consistent with the Office of the President (OP)’s declaration on the necessity of a law or national regulation banning single-use plastics as a crucial component of effective solid waste management and climate change action.
This legislative progress will nudge policymakers to proactively review the implementation of existing environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act (Republic Act or RA No. 8749), Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003), and Clean Water Act (RA 9275) to ensure that the Philippines attains inclusive and sustainable high economic growth.
The pandemic should be treated as an opportunity to enact responsive policies to safeguard the future of our communities, the environment, and the Filipino people. The upward trajectory of the economy should be anchored on stability and environmental sustainability.
We can promote the greater good and welfare of all Filipinos by ensuring long-term gains and prosperity through collective action. This whole-of-nation approach will ensure a more holistic, sustainable, and inclusive economic recovery from both the pandemic and the climate emergency.
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