The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) is to implement a ban on the use of “unnecessary” single-use plastic products by national government agencies, local government units (LGUs), and all other government-controlled offices.
(DENR To Ban Single-Use Plastics Soon)
This was mandated by the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC)’s Resolution No. 1363, Series of 2020. The DENR is to craft specific guidelines for its implementation as part of the government’s “solid waste avoidance and minimization strategy.”
Plastic products which will be covered by the ban include cups less than 0.2 millimeters in thickness, drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks, knives, thin and translucent plastic bags, and thin-filmed sando bags lower than 15 microns.
“The NSWMC resolution is a major step to curb the use of single-use plastic items that pollute our waterways, kill marine life and contribute to our country’s increasing solid waste,” DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu said.
This is being done in order to address the Philippines being one of the top five contributors of plastic waste in the world’s oceans, producing 2.7 metric tons of plastic waste each year.
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