A bad habit badly needing change
IT has become an all-toofamiliar sight in Manila Bay after heavy rains: Tons of plastic trash and other garbage floating by the breakwater. And the aftermath of Typhoon “Gorio” was no exception.
The floods induced by the recent typhoon have indeed exposed anew the very bad habit of many people in Metro Manila who litter and in discriminately throw all sorts of trash – particularly plastic – that clog drainage systems and waterways.
Littering and improper trash disposal has become a dirty habit so difficult to break for many of the undisciplined among us whose apathy leads to man-made flooding. And such is exacerbated by the apparent negligence of some authorities, thereby allowing the crisis to worsen.
The perennial dilemma over plastic trash could be gradually turning into nightmarish proportions amid findings of a global study released two weeks ago which indicated that“there’s enough plastic waste to bury Manhattan in New York under more than 3.2 kilometers of trash.”
The extensive study published in the journal Science Advances revealed that of the 6.3 billion metric tons of plastic waste generated as of 2015, “around 9% had been recycled, 12% was incinerated, and 79% was accumulated in landfills or the natural environment.”
“We are really heading toward a plastic planet,” lamented the study’s lead author, industrial ecologist Roland Geyer of the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, who said that of the plastics made since 1950,“none of the commonly used plastics are biodegradable. As a result they accumulate, rather than decompose, in landfills or the natural environment.”
Because of this, he said that the “near-permanent contamination of the natural environment with plastic waste is a growing concern,” as he revealed that plastic waste generated on land has entered the marine environment, contaminated freshwater systems, and “has been found in all major ocean basins.”
Geyer said that with plastic waste “now so ubiquitous” in the environment, it has been suggested that our planet has entered the “Anthropocene” era as indicated by the “geological cycle of plastics and their use.”
And some experts really believe so. “They argue for ‘Anthropocene’ –from anthropo, for ‘man,’ and cene, for ‘new’ – because human-kind has caused mass extinctions of plant and animal species, polluted the oceans and altered the atmosphere, among other lasting impacts,” according to a 2013 article written by Joseph Stromberg in the Smithsonian Magazine.
That plastic waste has indeed polluted the marine environment was revealed in another groundbreaking study two years ago which said that in 2010, an estimated 4.8 to 12.7 million metric tons (MMT) of plastic trash from coastal countries ended up in the world’s oceans, endangering marine life that ingests them.
The study made by a group of environmental scientists, oceanographers, and researchers whose work was published in Science, the leading journal of original scientific research, said that the Philippines’ mismanaged plastic waste has reached 1.88 million metric tons (MMT) a year, about 5.9 percent of the world’s total.
With that, the indiscriminate disposal of plastic waste common not only in Metro Manila but also in other densely populated areas of the country has put the Philippines at third spot, next to China and Indonesia, of the top 20 countries with the highest amounts of mismanaged plastic waste in 2010.
So how much has the Philippines, being a coastal country, contributed to marine environment pollution through its plastic waste?
Calculating the amount of plastic waste for populations within 50 kilometers of the coast in 192 countries, the study showed that of the Philippines’ 1.88 MMT per year of mismanaged plastic waste, 0.28-0.75 MMT/ year are believed to have flowed and found its way into the ocean.
The study said plastic trash can be found not only in waters near coastlines but also “in Arctic sea ice, at the sea surface, and on the sea floor.”
And with the extreme difficulty of retrieving plastic waste from ocean environments, it is imperative that “most effective mitigation strategies must reduce inputs” to the ocean.
Effective mitigation can be found in RA 9003, the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. But since its enactment in 2001, many local government units have yet to comply with its provisions, according to Sen. Loren Legarda, author of the law.
“Out of 178 LGUs in the Manila Bay region, only 51 percent are compliant with segregation-at-source; 50 percent for segregated collection; 44 percent with functional Materials Recovery Facilities; and 30 percent with the allowed disposal facilities/ sanitary landfills. Only two of the concerned LGUs have an approved 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan,” Legarda said in 2015.
“Unless we learn how to manage our waste, starting with proper garbage segregation and disposal, we will never be able to clean our waters and our communities,” Legarda warned. And she’s absolutely right, as shown by the familiar sight of plastic trash floating at Manila Bay after every heavy downpour.