ROAD REPAIR. Construction workers mix gravel, sand, and cement for drainage cement casting along Zapote Road in Caloocan City on Jan. 11, 2022. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources recommends that cement makers explore ways to utilize plastic waste as raw materials to help reduce the country’s solid waste by at least 40 percent. (PNA photo by Oliver Marquez)
MANILA – Campaign materials made out of plastics that are being used by candidates in the May 9 elections can be recycled by cement plants, a move that can help reduce the country’s solid waste generation by at least 40 percent.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources-Environmental Management Bureau (DENR-EMB) thus urged cement makers to explore ways to utilize plastic waste as raw materials, noting that several cement firms have already adopted the environment-friendly conversion.
“When all these cement plants will participate, we can dramatically reduce the volume of plastic waste which will be now regarded as raw materials of the cement plants in their current processing,” DENR-EMB Director William Cuñado said in a news release on Saturday. “This measure will reduce by 40 to 60 percent the volume of plastic waste.”
Cuñado said the participation of the local government units through their solid waste management efforts will contribute to the decrease in plastic waste volume.
DENR Undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs and spokesperson, lawyer Jonas Leones, said tarpaulins such as those used by candidates are melted to make other products out of the plastics.
“Plastic tarpaulins are also used in co-processing, in energy. These are mixed into cement as fillers. Sometimes these are used to create pots,” he said.
Leones said the DENR has already approved the national plan of action to address the plastic litter and in addressing single-use plastics.
“We are supporting the principle of circular economy and extended producer responsibility or EPR,” Leones said. “For us, we are just preparing the policy that would hopefully give incentives to the industries for them to avoid using single-use plastics."
Meanwhile, the DENR turned over 100 yellow trash bins to the municipalities of Binangonan and Angono in Rizal province on March 7 to ensure the proper segregation and disposal of household health care wastes, such as used face masks.
DENR Undersecretary for Enforcement, Solid Waste Management and Local Government Units Concerns and Attached Agencies, Benito Antonio de Leon, handed over 50 trash bins each to Binangonan Mayor Cesar Martin Ynares and Angono Mayor Jeri Mae Calderon.
"As former secretary Roy Cimatu manifested and as pursued by Secretary Jim Sampulna, we need to proceed in the direction of behavioral change," de Leon said. (PR)
