HEARING ON PROPOSED BILL TO CHARGE DEPOSIT ON BOTTLES

Chaired by House Rep. Estrellita Suansing, the Committee on Ecology, in the presence of Rep. Benhur Lopez, Rep. Enrico Piñeda and Rep. Baby Arenas, listened in on the opinion of stakeholders as to what they think if the law charges the public P10/bottle (be it glass or PET) so citizens would get to return these empty containers instead of seeing them end up in the middle of the sea.  Held on 16 May 2018, (in picture, L-R) Comm. Sec. Atty. Dilbert Quetulio, STC, popular environmentalist of Zero Waste Sonia Mendoza and Phil. Plastics Ind. Assn. (PPIA) Vice Pres. Danny Ngo were among those who gave their 2-cents’ worth.  STC initially cited that the cheapest bottled water only costs P5.50 thus adding P10 on top of its price sounds a bit ridiculous.  He also said why not bring empty bottles in cars and give these to beggars instead of coins/cash.  These bottles will surely find their way to recyclers when sold by these mendicants. Instead of bringing empty bottles back to supermarkets to get their deposits he said, it may augur well for church-goers to bring their empty bottles there and have their children place these in prepared bins by the parish ready for collection by recyclers.  This way, doing good for the ecology may be correlated to doing good in the eyes of our creator. STC says they may even add a sign at church which says: “Environmentalists go to Heaven!”