The Davao City government proposed to procure a portable weathering test machine that will help the City Environment and Natural Resources Office (CENRO) to determine if the plastic bags used by retail and food establishments are indeed biodegradable.
CENRO chief Atty. Joseph Dominic Felizarta said the proposal will be presented to the Solid Waste Management Board in its next meeting either this month.
He said the machine would cost about P1 million.
“We need the machine to ensure that the plastic bags that are distributed in the markets are truly biodegradable,” he said.
Felizarta said there were at least 10 plastics manufacturers that had already modified their production in this city to comply with the plastics and polysterene ban, which started on June 28, this year.
He said during recent inspections, the CENRO team had to sort the plastic bags by hand just to check and look for marks from the manufacturer to determine if they were biodegradable.
“This is very time-consuming as there are 30,000 business establishments in the city. Biodegradable plastic bags are also thinner than the non-biodegradable plastic bags, he said.
Meanwhile, Felizarta said as of August, the office already apprehended 450 violators since the start of the ban. Violators face a fine of P300 to as high as P5,000 or six months imprisonment.
He said the office also observed that there were now more business establishments that complied with the law. Prior to the ban, nearly 80 percent of the wastes collected in the city were non-biodegradable plastics.
He also said that the volume of collected wastes also declined from 32 tons per day to 16 tons daily due to the plastics ban and the strict enforcement on the segregation of garbage in the households. [PNA]
CENRO chief Atty. Joseph Dominic Felizarta said the proposal will be presented to the Solid Waste Management Board in its next meeting either this month.
He said the machine would cost about P1 million.
“We need the machine to ensure that the plastic bags that are distributed in the markets are truly biodegradable,” he said.
Felizarta said there were at least 10 plastics manufacturers that had already modified their production in this city to comply with the plastics and polysterene ban, which started on June 28, this year.
He said during recent inspections, the CENRO team had to sort the plastic bags by hand just to check and look for marks from the manufacturer to determine if they were biodegradable.
“This is very time-consuming as there are 30,000 business establishments in the city. Biodegradable plastic bags are also thinner than the non-biodegradable plastic bags, he said.
Meanwhile, Felizarta said as of August, the office already apprehended 450 violators since the start of the ban. Violators face a fine of P300 to as high as P5,000 or six months imprisonment.
He said the office also observed that there were now more business establishments that complied with the law. Prior to the ban, nearly 80 percent of the wastes collected in the city were non-biodegradable plastics.
He also said that the volume of collected wastes also declined from 32 tons per day to 16 tons daily due to the plastics ban and the strict enforcement on the segregation of garbage in the households. [PNA]
