Green groups score
open dumping, burning

ENVIRONMENTALISTS on Tuesday marked the ninth year of the Clean Air Act by calling for the strict enforcement of the ban on garbage incineration and on open dumping.

Members of the anti-pollution watchdog EcoWaste Coalition, together with Ms. Earth-Water 2006 Cathy Untalan, gathered in front of a huge banner that said "Uphold the Ban: Dump Not, Burn Not" to draw public awareness and action against waste dumps and incinerators.

They put a huge globe made of papier mache on top of a big earthen pot to suggest the "cooking of the planet" as a result of polluting activities such as garbage dumping and burning.

The Clean Air Act (Republic Act 8749), which was signed by former president Joseph Estrada on June 23, 1999, provided for a national air pollution management to protect the right of every person to breathe clean air. It prohibits the incineration of municipal, medical and industrial wastes that emits toxic and poisonous fumes.

The ban on incineration was reinforced by the enactment the following year of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (RA 9003). RA 9003 further bans open dumping and open burning of discards.

EcoWaste said dumps and incinerators contribute to climate change by emitting huge amounts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide into the atmosphere, trapping the heat and causing global temperature to rise.

They also said despite the skyrocketing oil prices, it does not make any sense to weaken or lift the ban on incineration to generate energy from waste.

EcoWaste considers the ban on incineration enshrined in the two major environmental laws as a vital preventive policy that has avoided valuable resources from being turned into toxic ash and smoke, reduced the discharge of harmful byproducts from combustion processes, and averted the squander of public funds for expensive, imported and superfluous materials destruction technology.

"We all know that climate change is real and that wasting contributes to the warming cycle. To address this most serious threat to the planet, we can take action in our own home, workplace and community by avoiding wasteful consumption, recycling our discards, saving energy and living sustainably," Cathy Untalan, executive director of Miss Earth Foundation, said.

The group insisted that "Zero Waste" is climate-friendly because it reduces the release of carbon dioxide from the use of fossil fuel energy associated with the extraction, processing and transportation of raw materials and their manufacturing into goods.

It said the method also minimizes the cutting of trees and the clearing of mountains, while it increases the carbon storage in soils with the composting of biodegradable discards and the application of the byproduct compost into the soil.

EcoWaste is also supporting the passage of House Bill 4134 by Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara, which seeks to reduce the use of plastic bags by imposing an environmental levy of P2.50 per plastic bag issued by retail outlets.

Anne Larracas of the EcoWaste Coalition's Task Force on Plastics said the proposed levy would regulate the unrestrained use of plastic bags and encourage consumers to switch to reusable bags and containers.

Under HB 4134, the revenues from the levy would go to an Environmental Protection Support Fund that will finance pollution prevention and reduction projects.

Larracas expressed hope that part of the levy would be used to set up community-oriented ecology centers or materials recovery facilities in place of polluting dumpsites and landfills.

A discards survey by the EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Southeast Asia in 2006 showed that 76 percent of the garbage floating in Manila Bay were mostly synthetic plastic materials, with plastic bags comprising 51 percent, sachets and junk food wrappers 19 percent, styrofoam 5 percent, and hard plastics 1 percent. The rest were rubber, 10 percent, and biodegradable discards, 13 percent.

EcoWaste Coalition said Ireland was successful in dramatically reducing plastic bag pollution with the introduction of the plastic bag levy in March 2002.