Plasticless Boracay

Tourists that will flock to Boracay once it opens in October will have to leave their plastics behind. This is because the municipal council of Malay in Aklan province recently passed Municipal Ordinance No. 386 banning single use plastics. With his development, hotels, restaurants and resorts will have to make adjustments in their operations. This will have an impact on small traders and vendors too.

Among the banned single-use plastics are non-reusable bottles, cups, bags, Styrofoam packs and sachets, disposable toothbrush, combs and eating utensils (I wonder what the replacements for disposable toothbrush will be). The new ordinance encourages establishments to use non-plastic replacements for items commonly provided by hotels like shampoo, conditioner and liquid body soap. The use of plastic bags by commercial establishments is already banned by Municipal Ordinance No. 320.

Establishments violating the ordinance will be fined P2,000 and a warning for the first offense, P2,500 and confiscation of single-use plastic items for the second offense and cancellation of business permit on the third off en se.

While the hospitality industry in Boracay was forced to be plastic-free, other hotel chains in the world are shunning plastics voluntarily. Marriott for instance, has made a commitment to remove plastic straws from all of its more than 6,500 hotels starting last July 2019. They also began swapping out small toiletry bottles in the guest bathrooms of about 450 select-service hotels with large, in-shower dispensers that reduce waste.

Another hotel chain, the InterContinental Hotels Group,is also implementing bulk-size bath amenities across many of its brands, including Holiday Inn Express, Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants and Candlewood Suites. The Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Hilton Hotels and Resorts, Accor Hotels - parent company of Fairmont, Raffles, Swissôtel and Novotel - and Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts are ditching out plastic straws.

Plastic waste is a problem in tourist destinations around the world. Late last year, authorities in Bali, Indonesia, declared a “garbage emergency” because of the amount of plastic washing up on a nearly 4-mile stretch of beach on the island’s west coast. Workers collected approximately 200,000 pounds of garbage each day at the peak of the cleanup.

Only recently, around 140 sacks of plastic, Styrofoam, rubber scraps, bottles, wrappers, nylon and ropes washed up in the islands of El Nido in Palawan. About 60% to 70% of the plastic bottles were from neighboring countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, China and Japan.

Ocean trash, especially plastics, is one of the environmental problems that humanity is facing today. According to the Earth Day Network, about 8 million metric tons of plastic are thrown into the ocean every year.

By the way, it’s not only Boracay that was closed down for environmental reasons. Maya Bay, on Phi Phi Leh island in the Andaman Sea in Thailand was also closed during the low season in June to September to give coral reef time to recover. Authorities are attempting to reverse decades of damage to the region’s marine environment.