QUEZON CITY, Philippines—The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed the House Bill 9147 or Single-Use Plastics Regulations Act on the third and final reading. Reacting to the development, Greenpeace Campaigner Marian Ledesma said:
“We laud the Congress for the passage of the legislation that provides for the phaseout of single-use plastic products. This is a timely response to the urgency to eliminate unnecessary single-use plastic items and curb the impacts and injustices stemming from plastic’s entire lifecycle.
“This also sends a strong message to plastic manufacturers that they have a responsibility to significantly reduce their contribution to the plastics problem and transition to alternative delivery systems.
“While this is an important development in the fight against the plastic problem, we urge Senators to respond with an even stronger legislation to improve and exclude problematic provisions and practices in the bill, specifically, ensure that no waste incineration or offsetting are included in the proposed law.”
[1] Greenpeace recently called on President Rodrigo Duterte to take urgent measures to implement an environmentally sound national ban on single-use plastics (SUPs) to protect Filipinos from further health and environmental harms | Read more
[2] The Center for International Environmental Law estimated that plastic production and incineration would result in more than 850 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 189 500MW coal plants; Offsetting produced plastic, funding or implementing projects/operations to intercept or remove plastic waste from landfills or the environment to offset or compensate for the amount of plastic produced, does not curb the pollution created during the manufacturing of plastic.
[3] The development coincided with the celebration of Plastic-Free July.
Media contact:
Angeli Cantillana
Communications Campaigner, Greenpeace Southeast Asia – Philippines [email protected] | +63 998 595 9733
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