ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS have requested President Rodrigo R. Duterte to compel the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) to immediately release the list of products deemed environmentally-unacceptable.
In a letter shared with reporters, seven environment groups including EcoWaste Coalition, Greenpeace Philippines and Oceana Philippines, named 10 single-use products which must be included in the list.
These are: labo bags, bags including oxo-degradable plastics; cutlery; straws; stirrers; bottles, cups and plates; thin plastic take-out containers; styrofoam or polystyrene food containers; and sachet, packaging or multilayered products.
“It has been twenty years since the passage of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act or RA (Republic Act) 9003. However, implementation still falls short,” the groups told the President in their letter.
Under the RA 9003, the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) is required to prepare the non-environmentally acceptable products (NEAP) within a year of the law’s enactment and provide yearly updates.
The environment groups said that the NSWMC’s mandate has been “long overdue,” adding that 96 local government units have urged the commission to release the NEAP list.
So far, the NSWMC has come up with a resolution classifying plastic soft drink straws and stirrers as the first two products under the NEAP.
The chairman of the NSWMC is Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, while Environment Undersecretary Benny D. Antiporda is the commission’s alternate chairman.
In August, Mr. Antiporda said he has ordered the NSWMC and Solid Waste Management Division to publish the NEAP in two newspapers of national circulation.
BusinessWorld reached out to the department for updates on the target date of the NEAP’s publication, but it has not yet replied as of press time. — Angelica Y. Yang