Pandacan and Tondo Folks Urged to Go Easy on Wasteful Plastic Banderitas
Pandacan, Manila
As the popular feast of the Santo Niño is celebrated in Pandacan today and in Tondo next Sunday, a waste and pollution watch group appealed to barangay leaders and residents to minimize, if not eliminate, the unbridled use of wasteful fiesta garlands.
Commonly known as “banderitas” or “lastay,” the fiesta buntings
have become an environmental nuisance with the thoughtless use of new single
use plastic bags and other disposable plastics that only add to the fiesta
garbage, the EcoWaste Coalition pointed out.
The group’s Basura Patrollers yesterday visited the Pandacan and
Tondo districts and were again appalled to witness the out-of-control use of
plastic bags and other disposable buntings to decorate streets and alleys.
“We are disappointed with the wild use of plastic buntings in
Pandacan and Tondo as if the city of Manila
“It’s only few days after Manila’s Department of Public Services
collected 75 truckloads of trash (approximately 385 tons) during the recently
held feast of the Black Nazarene, and the city’s waste and sanitation personnel
are already bracing for another fiesta-related garbage challenge,” he added.
The group has insisted that fiesta banderitas have no aesthetic,
functional or spiritual value and contribute nothing but residual garbage that
could even contaminate the oceans and harm aquatic life.
The super light plastic bags are very problematic as these are
easily blown away to canals and esteros and into the Pasig
River and Manila Bay
“Do we really believe plastic bag banderitas add color, joy and
meaning to the celebration of the feast of the Holy Child?,” Alejandre asked.
“It’s high time that we put a cap on non-essential uses of
plastics such as the wild use of plastic bags as fiesta buntings,” he
emphasized.
With the global plastics crisis worsening, the EcoWaste
Coalition urged the churches, local authorities and communities to switch to
zero waste celebrations and rally behind the enforcement of stringent policies
to prevent and reduce plastic garbage such as Manila City Ordinance 8282.
It cited the resolution adopted by the United Nations
Environment Assembly last December 2017 calling for accelerated action and
strengthened partnerships to combat the spread of marine plastic litter and
microplastics.
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