Plastic bags. CDN FILE PHOTO
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City residents should ready their bayongs and tote bags when they go shop, as a three-days plastic shopping bags ban may soon be implemented in establishments in the city.
The City Council committee on laws is now reviewing an amendment to City Ordinance No. 2343, or the ordinance that bans the use of plastic shopping bags every Wednesdays and Saturdays, to also include every Friday.
Councilor Nestor Archival, the proponent of the amendment, said the two-day a week plastic ban needs to be increased to three days because the plastic waste of Cebu City remains to be the main cloggers of canals and waterways.
The uncontrolled use of plastic bags is detrimental to the city during the rainy season because clogged canals and waterways will cause flooding in the low-lying areas of the city, in turn causing damage to properties, he said.
Archival said expanding the number of plastic ban days is also one way of training the Cebu City residents to refuse the use of plastic bags and start the more sustainable use of cloth bags, eco bags, and the local bayong.
The goal of the City Ordinance No. 2343 is to stop the use of plastic bags in the city, and amending it slowly each year will result to the eventual total ban of single-use plastic in the city.
“This time, let us just have a three-days plastic ban so that the Cebu City residents and establishments will get used to it,” added Archival.
If the amendment in the ordinance will be approved, this would mean that all establishments within the jurisdiction of Cebu City cannot give consumers plastic bags for their shopping on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
A fine of P2,000 will be imposed on establishments using plastic bags for the first offense. Succeeding offenses may raise the fine to P50,000 or even cancellation of the business permits.
Archival was confident it would not cause any inconvenience to city residents they are already used to twice-a-week plastic ban when they shop in malls, supermarkets and even in public markets.
He stressed that the impact of these small actions will be “huge” enough to save the city in the future. /elb