Public hearing today on banning plastics daily

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña supports the move to ban the use of plastic bags every day in the entire city and not just on two days a week.

Osmeña yesterday said he also wants to disallow the use of disposable plastic water bottles as these are the main cause of clogged drainage.

“Yes that’s very good, we should ban plastics. I’m trying to figure out how we can ban plastic bottles. We should ban plastic bottles also because it causes clogs to our drainage. We have to solve that problem,” he said.

Osmeña said the problem of clogged drainage will be reduced significantly-- more than 50 percent--if plastics are banned.

Osmeña said plastic water bottles occupancy more space inside the drainage systems in the city.

In an earlier interview, the Department of Engineering and Public Works also said most of the waste that they hauled from different drainage lines in the city are plastic water bottles.

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia has filed a draft ordinance that seeks to amend City Ordinance (CO) 2343, which regulates the sale and use of plastic shopping bags every Saturday.

The City Council passed CO 2343 in 2012. A year later, it was expanded to include Wednesdays.

Garcia, though, wants the plastic ban to be in effect seven days a week.

He pointed out that the rampant use and irresponsible disposal of plastic bags have clogged the city’s drainage system.

A public hearing on the proposed legislation is scheduled today.

Osmeña issued a memorandum that will prohibit the use of single-use plastics in City Hall starting Aug. 1.

Osmeña banned single-use plastics every day in City Hall, an order that also covers food vendors.