“Green Bag” campaign to kick off this month

CEBU, Philippines – The Philippine Retailers Association (PRA-Cebu) will officially launch its “green bag” campaign to pioneer a nationwide advocacy encouraging retailers to use environment-friendly shopping bags, instead of plastic.

Dubbed as “Every Bag Counts” or EBC, PRA-Cebu president Melanie Ng said the organization will initially drum up awareness in using “green bag” strategy especially to its member retailers, as well as encouraging consumers to use their re-cycled shopping bags.

In an interview with Ng, she said the EBC launching that is set on December 16 will feature three retailers in Cebu that have already implemented the “green bag” system, these are; SM Department Store, Islands Souvenir Inc. (ISI) and What A Girl Wants boutique.

According to Ng, PRA-Cebu is the first chapter of PRA national to launch this kind of campaign, so far.

Plastic bags and packaging have been pointed by local government cleaners, even in Cebu, for clogging waterways that contribute to floods – a perennial problem in most coastal cities. In fact, Cebu City alone produces more than 400 tons of garbage a day, mostly plastic.

Chaired by Chester Lim, of Belmont Hardware, Ng hopes that this campaign will start a unified retailers’ interest to totally avoid the use of plastic bags.

Recently, ISI chain of stores have introduced its own green bag initiative through “Orange is a new Green” branding. This will encourage consumers to use fashionable and environmentally friendly shopping bag.

Although, PRA-Cebu will just initially roll-out the massive campaign for using “green bags” and members left on their own to implement this advocacy in their respective operations, Ng said the long-term plan of PRA is to open-up a bulk-buying facility for raw material in making “green bags” in order to save cost.

Bulk-buying for environment-friendly shopping bags, as an organization is one of the options, Ng said as she has already lists of suppliers making biodegradable bags, although price of this material is still a big issue.

Requiring consumers to bring their own shopping bags, just like other countries are doing, is also seen as another “revolutionary” change for the shopping culture in the Philippines. “We don’t know how consumers will respond to this.”

There are over a hundred PRA-Cebu members. Ng said few of them including her company Premium Concepts, and NGenius are also implementing “green retailing” initiatives, but adopting this advocacy will ultimately depend on the retail company owner.

“Our members are mostly SMEs [Small and Medium Entrepreneurs], cost factor in this advocacy is a primary issue,” Ng said. However, she added that PRA-Cebu could also come up with suggestions on how to save in other areas like power consumption, in order to offset the cost of changing to biodegradable shopping bags.

(The Freeman)

PLastic Bags: Solutions

EBC Invitation Card

EBC (Every Bag Counts) Official Logo

EBC Logo Official

Green bag campaign on

Some Cebu retailers will soon be using environment-friendly bags in their retail outlets.

The practice is part of the Philippine Retailers Association’s (PRA) drive to implement greener practices in their outlets.

Melanie Ng, PRA Cebu chapter president, said the organization was taking a stand to educate and encourage all Cebuanos to do away with multiple plastic bags.

The advocacy reinforces a draft ordinance to ban plastic bags in Cebu City.

The PRA Cebu’s criteria for a green bag is that it’s reusable and not made of plastic. It can be made of paper katsa fabric (cheesecloth) or other biodegradable material.

Phase one of the group’s green campaign is an information drive. Phase two is implementation by retail outlets of the use of environment-friendly bags.

“We will be launching information campaigns first to promote awareness because we can’t just launch green bags right away and then after, the initiative will just die. We want to brand the campaign first then everything will follow,” she said.

“This will involve the participation of all PRA Cebu member stores and all major shopping malls in Cebu.” The campaign will be formally launched in a month.

PRA Cebu member stores will be encouraged to display “Every Bag Counts!” campaign materials in their stores.

Malls will also be asked to help display the materials establishments.

Ng said she received positive feedback from most of the chapter’s 110 members.

“I receive messages either through my e-mail or when we talk that they want to be counted in for the project,” he said.

Chester Lim of construction tools outlet, Cebu Belmont Inc., was chosen to lead the advocacy project.

“It’s a long process. But we are committed to continue with our advocacy for as long as it takes,” Lim said until it trickles down to shoppers and consuemrs.

“After the first phase, we will convene focus group discussions. By this time, we will be launching the official PRA Cebu Green Bag. We hope to kick off the first phase before the end of the year. The second phase will follow one month after,” Ng said.

The chapter is now accepting bid proposals for the design and production of the official PRA Cebu Green Bag.

“We are looking for suppliers who can submit a distinctive and practical design. We have invited all members to relay this information to their suppliers of shopping bags so that they can come up with a design and participate in the bid. Then all members of PRA Cebu can order from this supplier and by using the uniform PRA Cebu Green bag in our establishments, we can promote our green initiative as one.” Lim added.

Lim said he has been offering environment-friendly bags in Cebu Belmont at P99 per bag.

“I have been doing that for a year now. We sell an average of 15 bags a month last year. This month our bag sales increased to 20 pieces which is an indicator that more people know what it is and want to use green bags instead of plastic bags. But still we still need an aggressive information drive,” he said.

A green bag actuallly is more expensive than a plastic bag.

“For a jumbo plastic bag which is the biggest that we have here, the price is P4 each while the green bag is at P90 plus. And we’re even selling it here at a break-even price to encourage shoppers to use them,” he said.

The PRA Cebu Chapter’s green bag campaign became more relevant after the floods that hit Metro Manila during tropical storm Ondoy in September.

“Plastic bags and packaging have been blamed by local government cleaners, even in Cebu, for clogging waterways that contribute to floods – a perennial problem in most coastal cities. In fact, Cebu City alone produces more than 400 tons of garbage a day, mostly plastic,” the PRA Cebu Chapter statement said.

by By Aileen Garcia-Yap
Cebu Daily News

Climate Change Act signed

MANILA (Updated) — After most of Luzon was ravaged recently by the back-to-back typhoons, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday signed into law the Climate Change Act of 2009 that aims to institutionalize government’s response to global warming.

The law, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, aims to mainstream climate change into policy formulation, development planning, and poverty reduction programs. It also creates a Climate Change Commission (CCC) to coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the programs and action plans of government relating to climate change.

For updates from around the country, follow Sun.Star on Twitter

Republic Act 9729 or the Climate Change Act of 2009 will mainstream climate change mitigation and adaptation into government policy formulation from the National Government down to the barangay level by establishing a National Framework Strategy and Program on Climate Change.

The CCC, an autonomous policy-making body attached to the Office of the President will be created which will coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the programs and action plans of the government relating to climate change.

The Commission, which will represent the country in international climate change fora, would be chaired by the President who would also appoint three commissioners including the vice chairman.

The law also calls for the establishment of a Commission Advisory Board which will be composed of selected Cabinet members as well as representatives from the academe, business, non-government organizations (NGOs), and the presidents of the League of Provinces, League of Cities, League of Municipalities, and the Liga ng mga Barangay.

A panel of technical experts comprised of experts on climate change and disaster risk reduction would also be established to provide technical advice and practices on risk assessments and enhancement measures.

A framework strategy for Climate Change is expected to be crafted within six months which includes the development of measures to protect vulnerable communities, and mitigation of the adverse effect of global warming among others.

Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change Heherson Alvarez said under the law, a National Climate Change Action Plan which will be the country’s roadmap for mitigation, with emphasis on the voluntary reduction of local carbon emissions and adaptation will be crafted.

Also to be crafted is a Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) policy which the United Nations had prescribed to be a holistic approach to reduce the effects of disasters, in the areas of: humanitarian relief, development aid sectors, risk management, climate change and emergency preparedness. (JMR/Sunnex)

Source : Sunstar On-line

The Numbers…Believe It or Not

Introduced just over 25 years ago, the ugly truth about our plastic bag addiction is that society’s consumption rate is now estimated at well over 500,000,000,000 (that’s 500 billion) plastic bags annually, or almost 1 million per minute.

Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are the main culprit. Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they’ll accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.

Australians alone consume about 6.9 billion plastic bags each year, that’s 326 per person. According to Australia’s Department of Environment, an estimated 49,600,000 annually end up as litter.

In 2001, Ireland used 1.2 billion disposable plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

Four out of five grocery bags in the US are now plastic.

Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

In a dramatic move to stem a tide of 60,000 metric tons of plastic bag and plastic utensil waste per year, Taiwan banned both last year.

According to the BBC, only 1 in 200 plastic bags in the UK are recycled.

According to the WSJ Target, the second-largest retailer in the U.S., purchases 1.8 billion bags a year.

As part of Clean Up Australia Day, in one day nearly 500,000 plastic bags were collected. Unfortunately, each year in Australia an estimated 50,000,000 plastic bags end up as litter.

The average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in only four trips to the grocery store.

Each high quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery store offers a $.05 or $.10 credit per bag for bringing your own bags.

Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC one group harvests 30,000 per month.

Source : Reusable Bags

Environmental levy to discourage use of plastic bags

Legazpi City (24 June) — A Bicol solon has filed a bill at the House of Representatives imposing a P2.50 excise tax for every plastic bag used in groceries, supermarkets and malls.

Albay 2nd district Rep. Al Francis Bichara said the tax bill dubbed as “environmental levy” would impose a P2.50 excise tax on the use of plastic bags by shops, supermarkets, service stations, stores to further discourage these outlets from using plastic bags in their daily transactions.

Aside from the environmental levy House Bill 4134 would also create the Environmental Protection Support Fund (EPSF) to receive the proceeds of the imposed levy.

The EPSF would then fund projects which include among other stop all kinds of pollution; design and build environmentally sound waste management and landfill systems; improve on the ground environmental improvement activities for poor communities and support research on environmental protection and preservation.

According to Bichara the proceeds from “Environmental Levy” would be transferred and allocated to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) which will be tasked to oversee implementation of the EPSF.

Citing studies, Bichara said plastic bags have significant environmental impact as plastic waste likewise kill one million sea birds, 100,000 sea mammals and countless fish every year.

“We cannot deny the long list of disadvantages in the use of plastic bags,” notwithstanding that this materials are made of ” petrochemicals”, a non-renewable resource and are not biodegradable,” he pointed out.

Countries such as Australia, china, Ireland, Bangladesh, France, Italy, Taiwan and Tanzania have either banned or are engaged in a campaign against the use of plastic bags. (PIA Albay)

Source : PIA (Philippine Information Agency)

PRA-Cebu to launch “Every Bag Counts” campaign

CEBU, Philippines – In its bid to immediately implement “green retailing” campaign in Cebu, the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA-Cebu) announced its contribution to do away with plastic shopping bags and will soon launch the “Every Bag Counts,” campaign in the next few weeks.

PRA-Cebu president Melanie Ng said that the group has embarked on a one-bag-for-all initiative in order to drum up awareness of using [only] environment friendly shopping bags.

“We are trying to convince our members to require consumers to bring their shopping bags,” Ng said.

She said after the floods that recently ravaged Metro Manila, many Cebuanos thought about the possibility of the city suffering the same fate. “At the rate that we are accumulating trash – from all the plastic refuse we produce – we just might see that happen to us soon. Fortunately, an enterprise-led advocacy is now gaining ground to educate and encourage all Cebuanos to do away with multipleplastic bags or just stick to one.”

To start the campaign, the organization has already tapped its members and their suppliers for thedesign and production of the official PRA-Cebu Green Bag, which will then be used by all members to be re-used by consumers.

PRA-Cebu also plans to launch a city-wide information campaign targeted at end consumers, educating them about the importance of minimizing trash and its impact on the environment.

“While some members of PRA-Cebu are already implementing their own green initiatives, they still expressed their commitment to Every Bag Counts,” Ng stressed that “the sooner we can implement this, all the better for all Cebuanos.”

PRA Cebu Director Chester Lim, together with co-chair PRA Cebu Director Janel Gaisano are tapped to lead this laudableproject.

Plastic bags and packaging have been blamed by local government cleaners, even in Cebu, for clogging waterways that contribute to floods – a perennial problem in most coastal cities. In fact, Cebu City alone produces more than 400 tons of garbage a day, mostly plastic.

Cebu will pioneer the strict implementation of using only “green bags” for shopping in the country. This is expected to have a faster result as the private sector or the retail owners are leading this campaign.

According to Ng, introducing the “Every Bag Count” campaign is only a start of an extensive “green retailing” campaign that will be implemented by PRA-Cebu.

Earlier, Steven T. Cua, president of Philippine Amalgamated Supermarkets Associations (PAG-ASA), an association of 162 supermarkets around the country, urged Cebu retailers to start up implement “green retailing.”— Ehda M. Dagooc

The Freeman

Holden Bags – Green Bags

Holden Bags Think Green