“Green signifies life; green signifies Mother Earth where life exists.”
This was the gist of the Consumer Welfare Month celebration last October with the theme, “Consumers: Green multipliers”.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) provincial director Nenita Nazareno delivered the message before student writers and school paper advisers at a press conference arranged by the provincial information office at the Bulwagan ng Lalawigan last October 26.
Nazareno said, “There is really a need to relate consumer issues in protecting the environment and to take climate change issues seriously”.
The director pointed out that the high demand for non-biodegradable materials associated with products people consume is one great cause of pollution.
“DTI is actively carrying out its main responsibility in consumer welfare and rights protection. We are also conducting seminars and monitor compliances of the business sector on all regulations.”
In particular, DTI is keen on campaigning for the adoption of “bayong day” in all public markets and supermarkets and which is now promoted in some areas of the national capital region.
“We should revive netbags and bayongs as alternatives to cellophane,” said DTI- technical industry division chief Arnulfo Gamaan in support of the provincial director’s statement.
He bared the technology being studied by DTI as options to the existing raw materials in the market.
“A plate made of coconut midrib and banana leaf can be a good alternative to Styrofoam in our restaurants. We are also considering bamboo as a good alternative to plastic straw”, Gamaan said.
Admitting that the market receptivity to these alternatives is still unreliable, the two DTI representatives said the agency’s emphasis today is on consumers’ education and increasing public awareness.
They are calling on student-writers and the school papers to take the issue to their local schools to encourage students and their families to take active roles in combating climate change by becoming a “green multiplier” themselves.
(Editor’s note: This article won first place in the Provincial Press Freedom Month Celebration news writing contest at the Bulwagan ng Lalawigan, Tagum City. The writer is editorial staff member of The Explorer, official publication of Carmen National High School.)
