Saying that we occupy the same "suffering" planet because of climate emergency, Senator Cynthia Villar urged Filipinos on Saturday, Oct. 15 to "learn to live in partnership to solve our biggest problems together".
In her speech during the Coca-Cola "World Without Waste" event with the theme, "The Role of Partnerships in Driving a Circular Economy,’’ Villar noted that the globe is in the middle of a climate emergency.
"Because of this, every individual is bound not only to reduce his or her own footprint, but also find strategic interventions to drastically redeem what would have been valuable materials from the waste stream," she said.
"Cradle to grave management of products is no longer sufficient. Responsibility must begin at product conceptualization, before it even sees production," she also said.
While thriving corporations have already adopted the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) framework as their ethical responsibility, Villar reemphasized that it is about time that we turn this ethical responsibility into a legal one.
"The law introduces a better policy than simply expecting all our citizens to segregate and manage their wastes, and let the local governments in our scattered settlements and islands deal with the massive problems brought about by the lack of legal responsibility among the top producers of plastic wastes,” she said.
Villar is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources.
She said EPR requires manufacturers to reach collection targets.
Hopefully, the lady senator added, "What is collected will no longer find their way back to the environment as unmanaged waste.”
The EPR Law places responsibility for products squarely on the shoulders of the manufacturer from cradle to grave.
The senator also commended Coca-Cola company for not only looking at collection compliance, but also developing ways to incorporate recycled materials in their packaging.
According to Villar, large enterprises should be able to recover and recycle a minimum of 20 percent of all packaging waste distributed for the year before the end of 2023.
This target rises to 40 percent on the second year, 50 percent on the third year, and so on until 80 percent by 2028.
"It is actually my hope that your considerable resources will allow your industries to fast track research and development, reach and breach these targets and go beyond mere compliance," Villar added.
When these very realistic targets are met or exceeded, she said EPR expenses would be deducted from taxable annual income.