{contact_data~title} {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName}

Dear members of the National Solid Waste Management Commission,

Last January 2021, we commemorate two important occasions: Zero Waste Month and 21 years since the passage of the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act or RA 9003, which is not being fully implemented.

To address this, we are calling for the immediate release of the list of non-environmentally acceptable products and packaging (NEAPP), which should also include single-use plastics (SUPs). The release of the list would facilitate the prohibition of the use, distribution, manufacture, and importation of specific NEAPP items. This would tremendously help local governments eliminate their waste and become cleaner, healthier, and more climate-resilient communities.

We take note that the Commission had already defined "unnecessary single-use plastics" that should be banned in government-controlled offices. These are plastic - cups (lower than .2 mm in thickness), drinking straws, coffee stirrers, spoons, forks, knives, labo and thin-filmed sando bags (lower than 1.5 microns). RA 9003 mandates the Commission to formulate and update every year the list of NEAPP. If the Commission has already listed unnecessary SUPs, how come none has been done for the list of NEAPP?

As long as single-use plastics are not banned at the source, Filipinos would continue to bear the burden of this plastic pollution crisis. We are in good faith that the Commission would fulfill its mandate to “ensure the protection of public health and environment.”

Sincerely,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}

Oceana - Protecting the World's Oceans

URGE THE NATIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT COMMISSION TO BAN SINGLE-USE PLASTICS