Ifugao backs Senate bill ban on plastics

LAGAWE, Ifugao — Local and environment officials here are supporting the immediate enactment into law of two Senate bills that seek to regulate the use of plastic grocery bags and push for the use of environment-friendly alternatives in order to help preserve and protect the state of the region’s environment.

Senate Bill 1103 authored by Sen. Manuel Villar Jr. promotes sound waste management by requiring all department stores, malls, and commercial establishments to utilize re-usable environment-friendly shopping bags and provide them free of charge to their customers and patrons.

Aside from being consonant with the basic consumer rights, local officials said use of environment-friendly shopping bags instead of plastics is in accordance with the right of the people to a healthy environment which must be upheld by the national and local governments for the benefit of the present and future generations of Filipinos.

For their part, environmentalists here prodded local government units to adapt policies that will prevent local establishments from using plastics but instead use other environment-friendly materials so that people will learn to be stewards of the environment and minimize the use of plastics which are branded as hazardous to health and the environment.