I am against any plastic bag ban

I am against a ban on plastic bags, whether it is for one day, two days, or forever. Plastic bags are the single most convenient and cheapest implement suited to the Filipino style of shopping and buying. Contrary to the main accusation against plastic bags, they do not cause flooding. It is people that do. It is people that indiscriminately throw away garbage that clog waterways.

Here is my challenge. Why don’t we declog our waterways right now and see if it is only plastic bags that obstruct the flow of water? I am pretty sure we will all find all sorts of things –from small slippers and empty beer bottles to bigger things like used tires and even pieces of discarded furniture. And yet we do not ban these other things. And if I may digress a bit, an adult diaper stopped MRT operations in Manila a few days ago. Are we then to ban adult diapers too?

The point is this. Plastic bags do not end up in waterways unless people throw them there. So instead of blaming an inanimate object that cannot do anything on its own, why don’t we start with a little self-discipline? And instead of blaming other things, why don’t we start acknowledging our own shortcomings. Blaming plastic bags is the easy way out for people who cannot accept their failure to solve some of our truly big urban problems.

One such problem is flooding. But plastic bags do not cause flooding. It is rain. And rains are coming down harder and in greater volumes because of changes in the earth’s climate. But have we thought of addressing the rain? For all our bellyaching we have not even built the appropriate drainage systems and maintained those already in place. And we allowed denudation of mountains to give way to expensive homes, forcing rainwater to flush down to the lowlands. Then we blame plastic bags?

And while we crack down on plastic bags, we offer not a single thought to the poor people who depend on them, oblivious to their plight because we have cars to bring our thousands of pesos worth of groceries back home in comfort and convenience. We do not have to wait out in the sun or rain for a jeepney ride home, struggling with what a poor man’s salary can buy in sardines and instant noodles, stuffed in plastic bags because they are free, unlike eco-bags that they have to pay for.

I wonder if the crackdown on plastic bags isn’t really because it can make us look chic and hip, the new warriors for the environment, cool enough for a selfie or two. But can we really do for the environment what needs to be done by singling out the plastic bag? For all our bitching against the plastic bag, we have not even bothered to find out that it is in fact biodegradable. But then the truth takes time. It is easier to just damn the poor thing altogether.

Those who are out to kill the plastic bag have probably not tried looking at the reality of society around them. Maybe their high walls and tinted car windows prevent them from seeing the many carenderias and pungko-pungko affairs that line the streets, as well as the many subsistence employees depending on them for their daily meals. Poor people need plastic bags to put their “P10 nga takos sa mongos og P10 nga takos sa kanon” because their pockets probably have holes in them.

The problem is not the plastic bag. It is us, for not having the discipline to not throw anything anywhere. It is just like medicine, which has wonderful uses but deadly when used irresponsibly. A positive approach is needed so as not to solve one problem by creating another. If punishing people who throw garbage anywhere is too daunting, maybe rewarding them for not doing so will do the trick. Instead of blaming the plastic bag, try to make it work for you.

‘Plastic bags do not end up in waterways unless people throw them there.

So instead of blaming an inanimate object that cannot do anything on its own, why don’t we start with a little selfdiscipline?’