Plastic industry: ‘Plastic bags better than paper bags’

By Kristine L. Alave
Philippine Daily Inquirer 5:34 am | Monday, March 19th, 2012 

MANILA, Philippines—The plastic industry has launched an offensive against the use of brown paper bags and recycled newspapers  to wrap food—environmentalists’ proposed alternatives to plastic bags that are known to pose a huge threat to the environment.

Crispian Lao, spokesperson for the plastic industry, on Sunday said wrapping food products in brown bags and newspapers posed health hazards to consumers as waste paper could contain chemicals from its production that could contaminate food.

Lao said the group was raising its objection to emphasize “the unintended and costly consequences of the plastic ban, which in most instances has denied the public a cheap food-grade wrapping material.”

“That is why you will notice that if you order french fries or pizza, they are packaged in such a way that they are not in direct contact with the brown paper or carton packaging,” he said.

Lao made the statement as local government units in Metro Manila have started to regulate the use of plastic bags in wet markets and other commercial establishments to reduce the rubbish that clog the waterways and cause floods during rainy days.

National agencies like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) have also called for a metro-wide ban on plastic bags and Styrofoam in packaging of food products and other goods.

According to the MMDA, the metropolis generates 8,400 to 8,600 tons of trash per day, accounting for about 25 percent of the country’s daily solid waste generation of some 35,000 tons.

Sen. Miriam Santiago has filed a bill that aims to eliminate the use of plastic bags regardless of their composition—either regular or degradable plastic bags—while promoting the use of reusable bags.

Lao said plastic bags were not to blame for the city’s trash problems.

“Our irresponsible ways of disposing of plastic and other waste is to blame, not the plastic. We are the problem; we are also the solution,” he said.

Local governments, he added, must instead enforce waste segregation. “Banning plastic misses the problem completely. It is an egregious mismatch between problem and solution.”

Meanwhile, the environmental group EcoWaste Coalition scoffed at Lao’s arguments for plastic use, calling them “inaccurate.”

Paeng Lopez, a campaigner for the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, said plastic bags were more dangerous to the environment than paper as they were made from petroleum, a dwindling natural resource requiring carbon-intensive extraction, transportation and refining.