Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte (PPAB)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte is urging the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to strictly implement the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) Law in hopes of achieving the country’s vision of a circular economy.

“The EPR Law will mean nothing in our country’s green quest for a circular economy unless the DENR implements it in a more stringent manner in order to increase compliance by big companies with its mandate for them to sign up and commit to the sustainable way of disposing of their wastes, especially of single-use plastics,” Villafuerte said in a statement on Sunday, May 5.

Enacted in 2022 under Republic Act (RA) No. 11898, the EPR Law mandates manufacturers, along with distributors and retailers, to find ways of getting rid of their products in a more responsible manner after these goods have been used by the public.

Villafuerte said the law’s full implementation will help advance the shift to an eco-friendly circular economy—wherein resources are kept in circulation as long as possible—and mitigate the harmful impact of climate change.

The DENR previously lauded the EPR law as “a crucial step to the Philippines’ transition to the circular economy”. 

In line with this vision, the Bicol lawmaker also urged the agency to have a “better approach” to its sustainable management of solid wastes.

“A  more effective and sustainable way of disposing of trash, especially of single-use plastics, should top the DENR’s concerns,” he said.

The DENR said the Philippines was cited in 2015 as the third largest contributor to ocean plastic, with approximately 0.75 million metric tons (MT) of the material ending up in the seas and other waterways annually.

During last year’s United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the DENR entered into an environmental protection agreement with the World Economic Forum (WEF).

This partnership aims to mobilize communities behind the protection of the blue carbon ecosystem and the reduction of plastic pollution.

However, Villafuerte insists that this promising cooperation will only go to waste if aggressive steps to reverse the low compliance of big companies with the EPR Law are not taken.

In February of this year, the DENR reported that a total of 876 firms have so far registered with the EPR Law. 

“If many of the obliged companies have not even bothered to register at this point, is it wrong to speculate that they probably haven’t made any effort yet to start with the proper disposal or recycling of their plastic wastes, as required under RA 11898?” he stressed.

There are over 4,000 large enterprises in the Philippines, according to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).