Private Sector Urged to Help Prevent Plastic Waste Leakage

Sen. Cynthia Villar on Monday urged the private sector to do their part in helping the government prevent plastic waste leakage in seas noting that it had many bad effects to people and marine life.

“There should be some help from the private sector, from NGOs (non-government organizations) and the industry itself that produces plastic waste,” Villar told reporters in an interview.

Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resource, led a hearing into a resolution directing on the measures being undertaken to prevent plastic waste leakage into the sea with the intention to amend the National Solid Waste Management Law.

She said that it is time to amend the law since it has not been amended since 2001.

The senator, however, rejected proposals to ban the use of plastic entirely.

According to Villar, the use of plastic cannot be “avoided” but stressed that what is important is to make sure that it does not go to the sea.

She, meanwhile, urged the Philippine Port Authority (PPA) anew to enhance efforts to clean Manila Bay by providing informal settlers with proper housing or assuring they had proper toilet facilities.

“PPA is one of the agencies tasked to clean Manila Bay. The problem with PPA is that their ports have informal settlers without toilets. How can we clean Manila Bay without solving that?” she said. (PNA)AZER N. PARROCHA