Looking at the tons of plastic and remnants of personal items that the waves have tossed back to the shores, I could not help but feel pain at humanity’s unceasing assault on the very source of life itself. Our “buy, toss and throw” and clearly unsustainable lifestyles and practices have made ocean dumping a way of life.
When will we acknowledge that our ocean’s resources are finite and its capacity to absorb and disperse wastes is definitely not unlimited? And, for that matter, when will we learn to consider and connect the well-being of our planet and the vast resources that it supports to our own vitality and survival?
The continuing reckless contamination of our seas and waterways from household and industrial discharges overburdens an already devastated marine environment. It is reeling from the ill effects of destructive fishing and coastal developments, yet we continue to make it the ultimate recipient of discards.
I cannot help but feel the irony of the month of January declared as “Zero Waste Month” by Presidential Proclamation No. 760 in 2014, as government is seemingly bent on going for a hazardous technology to burn wastes, despite the strong legal framework for the protection of the health of the people and our planet.
The so-called “waste-to-energy” technology, which is incineration in disguise, requires volumes of mixed waste materials to be effective. This goes against the essence of waste minimization, segregation and the prescribed hierarchy for ecological waste management, which a law, RA 9003, known as the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act, requires all, especially government agencies, to comply.
It is the height of irony indeed that the policy-making body for implementation of RA 9003, the National Solid Waste Management Commission, has chosen to abdicate its clear mandates and had the gall to issue guidelines for the WTE technology to be adopted in the country.
This columnist agrees with the Ecowaste Coalition’s assessment that “If not repealed, this would open the floodgates for burn or thermal waste disposal technologies, undermining the country’s efforts to sustainably address our discards, which could be reused, recycled or composted instead of being incinerated.”
Note that RA 9003 requires the Commission to perform these functions, among others: (a) Prepare the national solid waste management framework; b) Approve local solid waste management plans in accordance with its rules and regulations; (c) Review and monitor the implementation of local solid waste management plans; (d) Coordinate the operation of local solid waste management boards in the provincial and city/municipal levels; (e) To the maximum extent feasible, utilizing existing resources, assist provincial, city and municipal solid waste management plans; (o) Develop safety nets and alternative livelihood programs for small recyclers and other sectors that will be affected as a result of the construction and/or operation of solid waste management recycling plant or facility . . . (p) Formulate and update a list of non-environmentally acceptable materials . . . (q) Encourage private sector initiatives, community participation and investments resource recovery-based livelihood programs for local communities; (r) Encourage all local government agencies and all local government units to patronize products manufactured using recycled and recyclable materials; (s) Propose and adopt regulations requiring the source separation and post-separation collection, segregated collection, processing, marketing and sale of organic and designated recyclable material generated in each local government unit.
Looking at said mandates, many of whom have not as yet been done, it is obvious that it is beyond the authority of the Commission to issue such WTE guidelines.
Looking at the indubitable fact that majority of the LGUs have no approved solid waste management plan, the Commission and the DENR should coordinate with DILG and the Office of the President to ensure that LGUs prioritize the implementation of RA 9003. Likewise, Filipinos must learn to be more responsible about managing materials that they no longer use. It is in fact high time to hold public officials accountable for the lackluster performance in implementing the law.
The appalling failure of both national and local government agencies to respect and obey the aforesaid law should never be a reason to allow them to violate it all over again, by going for a ‘band-aid” and ecologically destructive and false solution to our collective dismal failure to manage the so-called “discards”, which are of our own making.
But, really, there is a healthy and sustainable solution – which RA 9003 mandates each one of us to do: Aim for a zero-waste life.
According to Proclamation 760, “zero waste” is an advocacy that promotes designing and managing products and processes to systematically avoid and eliminate the volume and toxicity of waste and materials, and to conserve and recover all resources, and not indiscriminately or burn them.” It adds that “zero waste” is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary to guide people in changing their lifestyle and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.
Some barangays, municipalities and cities in the country have successfully implemented the law. Why are laggard LGUs not compelled to do the same?