Philippines Regulates Single-Use Plastic Bags... Reducing Marine Pollution in Asia

Philippine House Passes Bill to Tax Single-Use Plastic Bags
80% of Global Marine Plastic Waste Originates from Asia

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Junran] The Philippine Congress is pushing for measures to regulate the use of single-use plastic bags to protect the environment. According to Reuters on the 15th, the Philippine House of Representatives passed a bill the day before that imposes a tax on manufacturers and importers of single-use plastic bags. The tax amount is 100 pesos (about 2,300 KRW) per kilogram. Starting in 2026, it is scheduled to increase by 4% annually.

Once the bill passes the Senate and receives approval from President Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippine government is expected to generate tax revenue of 9.3 billion pesos (approximately 214.4 billion KRW) annually. The government plans to use these funds for waste management resources to accelerate eco-friendly policies.

This measure is interpreted as being implemented following President Marcos's emphasis on marine pollution prevention policies. Earlier, Marcos declared his commitment to environmental protection immediately after winning the presidential election in May.

According to data from Oxford University in the UK, 80% of plastic waste dumped into the world's oceans flows through rivers in various Asian countries. Among them, waste discarded in the Philippines accounts for one-third of the total. Additionally, a 2016 research report by an international environmental organization revealed that an average of 163 million single-use plastic bags are used daily in the Philippines.

Currently, many marine areas worldwide are threatened by pollution from microplastics. In September 2021, there was a report that balloons from the Disney movie "Frozen" were found in the Mariana Trench, the deepest ocean on Earth. In March of the same year, news reported the discovery of plastic bags in the Emden Deep of the Philippine Trench, the third deepest ocean trench on Earth.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) warned in a February report titled "The Impact of Plastic Pollution on Marine Life, Biodiversity, and Ecosystems" that 88% of marine species are negatively affected by plastic waste.

The report estimates that 90% of all seabirds and 52% of sea turtles have ingested plastic. Humans are also found to consume the equivalent of one credit card's worth of microplastics weekly. WWF added warnings that regions such as the Mediterranean Sea, East China Sea, West Sea, and Arctic sea ice areas have exceeded irrecoverable limits.

Moreover, the North Pacific Gyre contains the GPGP (Great Pacific Garbage Patch), which can be translated as the "Pacific Giant Garbage Patch" in Korean. Charles Moore, who first discovered the GPGP in 1997, described it as a "plastic soup in the middle of the ocean." The nonprofit research organization Ocean Cleanup Foundation announced in March 2018 that the amount of plastic waste in the GPGP is about 80,000 tons, equivalent to 500 large passenger airplanes, containing approximately 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic. It is estimated to be more than 15 times the size of South Korea.

The problem is that the GPGP continues to grow, and there are more than four such garbage patches located in the North Atlantic, Indian Ocean, South Pacific, and South Atlantic gyres. Some data suggest it would take 78,000 years to clean up all the waste on these islands.

Accordingly, the international community and countries worldwide are struggling to fundamentally block environmental threats caused by marine debris. In December 2018, the European Union enacted the "Single-Use Plastics Directive," which bans the use of single-use plastic products, including fishing gear, starting July 2021. At the 5th United Nations Environment Assembly held in Nairobi, Kenya, this March, a resolution was adopted to establish a "legally binding international agreement to end plastic pollution."

Our government also estimates the annual marine debris generation in South Korea at 177,000 tons and has announced plans to reduce marine plastic waste by 60% by 2030. It has established the "1st Basic Plan for Marine Waste and Marine Pollution Sediment Management (2021?2030)" to achieve zero household plastic by 2050.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.