DTI taking over move to promote native bags

The Department of Trade and Industry has taken cognizance of the proposal of the city council to revive native bags in lieu of plastic shopping bags.

In a formal communication to the council, DTI Director Victorio Mario Dimagiba said the proposal has already been referred to the Cottage Industry Technology Center for the conduct of a study to promote the use of reusable paper/woven native bags like bayong, buyot or bukag as an alternative carry bags for shopping.

“Respectfully referred to Executive Director Franklin Bunoan, Cottage Industry Technology Center for appropriate action the attached resolution of the Sangguniang Panglunsod of Cebu City requesting the joint efforts of the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to conduct a multi-disciplinary study to promote the use of reusable paper/woven native bags as an alternative carry bags by the consumers for shopping and other various purposes vis-à-vis the reported environment and public sanitation risks,” the DTI endorsement read.

The council, through a resolution by councilor Edgardo Labella, has pushed for DTI and DENR to conduct the multidisciplinary study following the results of a study conducted by the Worldwatch Institute, an independent research organization, which said that factories around the globe produce four to five trillion plastic bags a year with 500 billion of these only end up as trash.

The council shared Labella’s views that undeniably, plastic carry bags have emerged as one of the threats to the environment considering that when they are thrown as garbage, they end up clogging canals and being ingested by sea-borne creatures such as turtles, whales and other forms of marine life.

Labella, chairman of the city council’s committee on laws, said there is now a growing global awareness among environmental advocates that cutting back on the disproportionate use of plastic carry bags would not only lessen the plastic’s reputation of becoming an environmental hazard but also lessen the demand for expensive oil.

“A heightened use of the said native bags will undeniably lead to the re-boosting of the dying native bag-making industry in the country, which could spur employment opportunities to agricultural workers and revenues to various local government units including the business sectors in the country,” Labella said earlier.  — Joeberth M. Ocao/BRP