Cabaero: Adding days to the plastics ban
WHAT a difference three more days of no plastic bags in Cebu City will make to efforts to prevent waterway clogging and flooding in the streets.
A lot can be gained from the additional three days of the ban, based on a proposal with the Cebu City Council to expand the prohibition on the use of plastic packages from two days (Wednesdays and Saturdays only) in the current amended ordinance to five days (adding Fridays, Sundays and Mondays), for a total of five days per week.
One way to know what day is today is to line up at the grocery counter where the cashier will tell you if it’s a plastics or no-plastics day. I usually get reminded that it’s a Wednesday or a Saturday. If the ban will get expanded to cover five days per week, the confusion would still be there or I just have to remember what day it is.
From two days a week of the prohibition to five days a week, why not impose a total ban and do away with the confusion? But that’s an easy way to weigh the proposal when what are needed are education, discipline and time to transition.
The SunStar Cebu reported that, last June, Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia filed a proposal to amend City Ordinance 2343 that regulates the use and sale of plastic shopping bags every Saturday. The original resolution was approved in 2012. A year later, it was expanded to include Wednesdays.
In his proposal, Garcia said the plastics ban should include Fridays, Sundays and Mondays or the whole weekend, as Saturday is already in the ban, to include those days when people do most of their buying. Shoppers would have to use cloth bags, sacks or baskets as alternatives. If approved, plastic bags will be allowed only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The City Council is inviting business establishments to comment before it would act on the proposed amendment. One person who stood up during the October 10 public hearing on the measure was environmentalist Anthony Galon who pushed for a total ban, seven days and not two or three more.
Garcia preferred that the ban be implemented gradually to give consumers and business establishments time to prepare for it. “Maybe this is just a starting step, and we can eventually expand and have it for seven days,” Garcia said.
Under the draft ordinance, a violator may be fined P2,000 to P5,000 or face a jail term of not more than six months. Establishments may have their business permits suspended for one year.
The ban – whether for five or seven days – will not be enough to solve the problem of the clogging of the drainage system. The drainage itself has to be fixed by clearing it of debris or expanding it to meet the requirements of a growing metropolis. The cleaning of streets should be done regularly so that garbage thrown indiscriminately do not end up clogging the drainage.
When the new ban takes effect, Cebu city would not be like Mandaue city where flooding reportedly decreased because of the prohibition. But the new ban will contribute to the end of flooding.