The filthiest

In a 2021 study, we were listed as the world’s worst polluter of the world’s ocean.

More than one-third (36 percent) of the plastic polluting the oceans and destroying marine life (try shortage of fish) comes from the Philippines. We should be ashamed.

What is particularly upsetting is that India, a country of 1.4 billion, accounts for only 13 percent of the plastic into the seas. Now, admittedly we’re an island nation, so the sea is all around us. But that’s no excuse. Just because the sea is there, you don’t dump garbage into it.

Rich countries contribute very little plastic to the ocean, only 0.1 kilogram per person compared to the 3.5 kilograms from the Philippines. That’s 35 times more. That’s disgraceful. The Philippines is number one on per capita, too.

Data from the World Bank showed that in 2016, the US produced 2.24 kilograms of waste per person each day. Canada was at 1.94 kilograms, while the United Kingdom was at 1.33 kilograms. The Philippines only produced 0.39 kilogram per capita every day, yet it is the worst polluter. The rich countries incinerate their waste plastic. So the waste-to-energy bill of Senators Sherwin Gatchalian, Francis Tolentino, and Nancy Binay should be accelerated through Congress, but amended to allow incineration not only for energy, but also for cleanliness. Clean-emitting incinerators now exist.

We must do something about it. I have railed to anybody I could for years to pick up your rubbish, to go clean. I have suggested a national cleanliness campaign, with annual prizes: the cleanest barangay, the cleanest town, the cleanest city, the cleanest region. Filipinos love prizes, they’d go for it. But no one can be bothered.

As I said in my column “75 trucks” (6/28/18), “Let’s have families who are given conditional cash transfers spend a day or two a week to earn that handout by doing community service cleaning up and beautifying their community.” But we’ll need an efficient garbage collection system and disposal. Incinerators must be brought back (see my column “The benefits of incineration,” 2/25/21). Landfills must be cleanly managed. All done by the private sector under contract to the government under a PPP, and done to world standards. Properly managed landfills are needed.

I don’t have much of a memory, but I’ve never forgotten that one Black Nazarene procession yielded 75 truckloads of rubbish, mostly plastic. Let me be blunt: Christians devoted to God weren’t devoted to protecting the planet he created for them.

Given that this is a country of more than 80 million Catholics, perhaps the bishops could preach a message of cleanliness. Encourage their flock to be clean. The Department of Education is helping in modules that stress looking after our environment. Let’s hope the kids take it in better than the parents. Maybe they can teach their careless parents.

You’ve all watched the movies and seen “wheelies,” the garbage cans with wheels in every home, and the massive garbage trucks to collect that garbage. Maybe we can’t afford those now, but simpler ones we can. And garbage trucks can be smaller for tighter places.

When you go out, we need garbage cans everywhere. Companies will provide them for free if they can put ads on them. And why not. To stop theft, do what the Puerto Princesa mayor didʍput holes in them. Big enough that rice will fall through, but garbage won’t.

This I’ve suggested endlessly, too. No city has done it.

What comes out of research into ocean pollution is that the bulk of it comes from rivers. That we have more rivers than most countries does not mean we should use them to dump our garbage. It means we should love them enough to want clear, sparkling waterways our kids can swim in. And we can drink as we used to generations ago. The Pasig should be a river that is the pride of the city, not one that contributes 6.4 percent of global river plastics into the world’s oceans. No other river comes close.

Nestlé, the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturer, has gone plastic-neutral. By reducing plastic use and introducing innovative ways of disposal, by taking back what it produces, it is adding no plastic to the world. This is what other companies should copy.

I’ve argued for a clean Philippines so often that I sound like a broken record, so I’m not sure why I keep trying. But the world needs clean oceans. We need the fish from them. We don’t need the reputation as the filthiest country in the world.

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