Finally, a ban on single-use plastic straws, stirrers

The National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC) approved last Tuesday a resolution banning plastic soft-drinks straws and plastic stirrers, now commonly used in restaurants in the country. These single-use plastic materials end up in huge volumes in the nation’s garbage dumps and eventually in the world’s ocean depths, for the simple reason that plastic is not biodegradable and lasts up to 450 years.

The ban is in implementation of Republic Act (RA) 9003, the Ecological Waste Management Act approved on January 26, 2001. That law listed many materials that were filling the nation’s garbage dumps, including materials containing toxic additives that threaten human health and the environment.