Having a cleaner environment is something that would provide
us a lot of benefits such as cheaper materials and safer and simpler
environment. But as we look at our streets and rivers, could we see anything
clean about them?
Nowadays, it is evident that many individuals constantly
innovate ideas on how to make our environment cleaner and better. However,
truth to be told, only a few of these were actually strictly implemented.
Moreover, only a few had concrete effects in alleviating the problem of the
environment.
Remnants of packaging can be seen everywhere in our country
from outside people’s houses to the flowing rivers. Most packaging materials
evidently seen in the streets are made up of disposable plastics, papers, and
styrofoams.
Hence, to compensate for the increasing volume of packaging
and its according effects to the environment, a stricter implementation of
environmental courtesy and laws should be done. To decrease the volume of packaging
and practice efficiency, different approach and ways should be done. In this
light, one of the ways to practice a concrete and stricter implementation is to
impose heavy taxes on those who manufacture these products. Similarly, taxes
should be imposed to its consumers like the ones being implemented by the
Quezon City government on plastics but it should a lot be higher than the tax
imposed by the Quezon City government which is only two pesos because two pesos
is really cheap. Countries such as Vietnam have high taxes on plastics
amounting to $1.9 per kilogram, why can’t the Philippines do the same? Taxes
should not only be imposed on plastics but to paper bags as well because even
though paper is a renewable resource, the process of making a piece of paper
consumes and contaminates a lot of water. The money from those taxes should
then be used to make our environment cleaner and to provide and advertise to
consumers low price but high quality reusable bags such as “bayongs” and “eco
bags”. With the implementation of heavy taxes, reusable bags would be a lot
cheaper and popular thus we would have less trash from packaging leading to a
cleaner environment.
One of the reasons why our environment is so polluted is
because of the smog and chemicals released from industrial factories to the air
and various bodies of water. Father Jett
talked about how everything has a cost and in the factories’ case the cost of
creating all those manufactured products is being paid by the environment and
the people within that vicinity. The best way to treat this problem is to
require factories that contribute to pollution to deal by themselves the
pollution that they have created. They would have to take back what they
released and through gas treatment system or water treatment like the ones
founded in Coca-Cola. Coca-Cola’s water treatment facility makes sure that the
water they release back into the environment is clean and uncontaminated water. By making those factory owners take back what
they give then they would realized how harmful it is to be in contact with that
pollution.
By creating all those changes and through implementation of
the law then we would have a much more cleaner environment. This will lead to a
cheaper ( no cost of packaging because of using “bayongs”) , simpler, lovelier,
and safer environment.
References:
Viet Nam News.
"High Tax May Lead to Plastic-bag Imports | Eco-Business.com." EcoBusiness
Asias Cleantech Sustainable Business Community. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan.
2013.
