Say ‘no’

PART 2

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WE can do a lot in eliminat­ing, or at least reducing to significant extent, the need for single-use plastic products. What is primarily required is a strong commitment to protect the environment. With such commitment, it will be easier for us to “rewire” our thinking on the “role” of plastic products in our current living system and hopefully see that single-use plastic products should be abandoned altogether.

This is simply a question of demand for single-use plastic products. As long as there is a demand for them, supply will have to be created.

It is either we make the de­cision to reduce (or eliminate) the demand by changing our plastic-dependent lifestyle or we make the State compel us by banning both the demand and supply of such kind of plastic products. The move for the latter is gaining ground, particularly in the House of Representatives, where more than 30 bills on the outright or phased ban on single-use plastic products have been filed.

These bills are currently under consideration by the House Com­mittee on Ecology.

With the sheer number of bills on single-use plastic products, one can reasonably expect that a consolidated measure on this matter will be passed before the end of the 18th Congress in 2022.

The option of having a law that bans the use and manufacture of single-use plastic products will obviously deliver faster results than the other option of having most (if not all) citizens rewire their thinking about the real value of such kind of plastic products.

Given the extent of dam­age that single-use plastic products on the environment, faster results will have an ad­ditional environmental protec­tion value.

For those who are already committed to the cause of saving Mother Earth from destruction, the best actions are those that support inter­ventions that can deliver faster results such as the enactment of a law that will ban the use and manufacture of single-use plastic products.

While I believe that we have more than enough legislators both in the House of Repre­sentatives and the Senate who will support the needed legisla­tion, a strong “push” from the people will make a difference for its enactment as soon as possible.

Each day that Mother Earth is free from single-use plastic products means a great deal of environmental protection, like saving the life of a lot of sea creatures.

Let’s say “no” to single-use plastic products and “yes” to environmental protection.