BACOLOD CITY – The City of Sagay in Negros Occidental will start implementing “No Plastic Day” every Tuesday and Friday starting Jan. 1 in line with the ordinance seeking to minimize single-use plastic bags and containers in the locality.
The two-day “No Plastic Day” for the entire 2024 will be a prelude to the three-day “No Plastic Day” in 2025 set every Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday.
By 2026, the northern Negros city aims to totally ban the use of plastic bags, styrofoam, and single-use plastics in all establishments.
“A technical working group led by the City Environment and Natural Resources Office will be formed to create the implementing rules and regulations for proper enforcement,” the bill’s author, Councilor Arthur Christopher Marañon, said in a statement on Tuesday.
City Ordinance 2023-015 or the “Single-Use Plastic Regulation Ordinance of Sagay,” signed by Mayor Narciso Javelosa earlier this month, covers all business establishments within the city, including street vendors who offer goods for sale to the public.
The ordinance seeks to minimize, if not eliminate, the use of single-use plastic carryout bags and polystyrene containers in business establishments, as well as reduce the use of plastic cutleries, drinking straws, plastic hand gloves, stirrers, and other materials used for serving food and beverages.
Furthermore, it is expected to encourage the use of alternative packaging materials, such as woven bags, cloth/paper bags, and similar organic packaging materials.
According to City Ordinance 2023-015, it is unlawful to use and provide plastic bags as primary packaging materials for dry goods except those packed goods by manufacturers, and as secondary packaging material for wet goods and food items, such as those used for packing fresh wet goods directly purchased in wet markets.
Also prohibited are the use and provision of styrofoam and single-use plastics, such as drinking cups, ice cream and salad cups, stirrers, cutlery, drinking straws, hand gloves, meal box trays, and cake pastry boxes as food and beverages containers and food service materials. (PNA)
