(Pixabay)


Take more decisive steps to implement the Extended Producer Responsibility Act (EPRA) of 2022. This, in a nutshell, was Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte's message to Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga, who had been quoted as saying that the government wasn't winning the war against single-use plastics. For Villafuerte, the crux of the matter is how the DENR would handle the implementation of Republic Act (RA) No.11898, which institutionalizes the extended producer responsibility (EPR) on plastic packaging waste. “Rather than apparently losing heart just a half-year after the release of RA No.11898’s IRR (implementing rules and regulations), the Secretary should work on more decisive steps to fully implement this law and ensure the compliance of the obliged companies with the registration requirement,” he said in a statement Thursday, June 15. The law essentially requires large companies to adopt and implement policies for the proper management of plastic packaging wastes. “If most of the obliged companies have not even bothered to register, is it too much to speculate that they probably haven’t made any effort yet to start with the proper disposal or recycling of their plastic wastes, as the new law requires?” asked Villafuerte. Villafuerte issued these remarks following the DENR head honcho’s recent revelation that only about 600 or 15 percent of the 4,000 enterprises that have promised to practice EPR have so far registered. The Bicolano reminded the DENR that under RA No.11898, the enterprises that obliged to practice EPR but fail to register or to comply with the law face fines ranging from P5 million to P20 million. They also face automatic suspension of business permits, depending on the violators' number of offenses. "The objective here is to reduce waste generation and improve the recyclability or reusability of such wastes as plastic containers or packaging materials as part of a wholistic approach in switching to an eco-friendly circular economy,” said Villafuerte, majority leader of the powerful Commission on Appointments (CA). “But sadly, this grand government drive to reverse the worsening plastic waste pollution appears to have nosedived this early before it could even fully take off, with our DENR secretary herself conceding that ‘we are not winning the war’ on this campaign.” Villafuerte further told the DENR chief that the successful implementation of RA No.11898 lies mainly on the active participation of the obliged companies, as Yulo-Loyzaga herself said that the challenge of finding a sustainable replacement for single-use plastics should not be left to the government and the academe, but should also involve producers or manufacturers that use plastics in their products.