Greenpeace Philippines has urged the government to set rules to stop the production of single-use plastics (SUPs) in the country to protect citizens from climate change.

Marian Frances Ledesma, a zero-waste campaigner of the environmental group, said this method is more effective than imposing higher excise taxes on SUPs, such as thin plastic bags, drinking straws, plastic utensils, and wrappers.

“While taxes can discourage plastic production to a degree, government mandates to reduce plastic production and ban single-use plastics would be more significant and effective in addressing plastic pollution,” she said in an email to DAILY TRIBUNE.

The Department of Finance (DoF) earlier proposed to lawmakers an additional P100 per kilogram excise tax on SUP or thin plastic bags which are opaque bags usually used by small vendors at sari-sari stores or by street food vendors.

If the DoF proposal passes into law, the price of one handle-less plastic bag will slightly increase from P0.47 to P0.82. Meanwhile, the price of one plastic bag with handles will increase from P0.51 to P0.91.

Government officials said the tax rate will be indexed annually at 4 percent starting in the third year of the tax implementation.

With the higher excise tax, officials said P31.5 billion can be added to government funds starting next year to 2028 to support public services and projects.

Waste avoidance

However, Ledesma said a more aggressive approach to “waste avoidance” is needed to force consumers and businesses to innovate ways to create more eco-friendly or reusable materials and ensure safer communities in the longer term.

“For solutions to help with the shift away from single-use plastics, both the national government and local governments must support and help affected stakeholders and micro, small, and medium enterprises establish reuse and refill systems and acquire reusable materials to replace disposable plastics,” she said.

To implement such measures, Ledesma said the government must strictly monitor compliance with the Extended Producer Responsibility Act which requires businesses that use plastics to build recycling facilities and offer incentives to consumers and waste collectors to return plastic materials for recycling.

Ledesma said the reduction targets for plastic production will allow workers in plastic manufacturing some time to acquire other skills and livelihood.

“It is important to consult all stakeholders to develop transition plans with them and provide a transition period to allow them to be re-trained for new sectors, or given opportunities to play a role in the systems that will be the alternative distribution models instead of single-use plastic,” she said.

“This can be done in different ways, such as technical assistance, fiscal support, connecting stakeholders to organizations/entities that can provide guidance and capacity building,” Ledesma added.

According to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), 24 percent of the country’s more than 61,000 million metric tons of waste comes from plastics.

The country produces 163 million sachets, 48 million shopping bags, and 45 million thin-film bags daily, 33 percent of which pile up in landfills while 35 percent float in the ocean, DENR secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga reported

For its part, the World Economic Forum said plastics also account for 4.5 percent of global carbon emissions.