The implementation of a No Plastic ordinance at the public market in its first week of implementation this week has so far been successful.
City economic enterprise officer Engr. Jose Ronie Fortin said he has observed that the first day of its implementation was a success because of the cooperation of marketgoers and the public in general.
Many were bringing reusable plastic bags and that the stalls are willing to continue with the scheme on a daily basis without fear of being penalized.
Stallholders at the Dumaguete City Public Market have declared every Monday of each week as a no-plastic day, during a meeting with presidents of different associations inside the public.
This is an initiative to reduce the use of plastics and in compliance with a city ordinance regulating the same.
Councilor Joe Kenneth Arbas, chairman of the committee on market, told the city council the agreement was reached among stallholders during a consultative meeting with their respective presidents as their contribution to reduce non-biodegradables that reach the garbage dumpsite in Candau-ay.
It started on Monday, April 2, 2018 requiring market goers to bring their own reusable bags in buying fish, meat and other dry goods with the only exemption to use the primary packaging on wet goods.
It was hoped the practice of self-regulation will eventually be developed into a culture and habit of Dumaguetenos to provide for their own bags in addressing the garbage woes of the city.
Councilor Karissa Faye Tolentino-Maxino lauded Friday the initiative but encourages other establishments to apply the same in their respective stores to be fair with everybody.
Ordinance author Councilor Manny Arbon has clarified the plastic ordinance does not ban the use of plastics but merely regulates them because there is no law yet to that effect. He is, however, worried the “no plastic Monday” might be misconstrued as a way of forgetting about the penal part of the Ordinance, such that when it will go full blast later on, questions may be raised why it was no imposed before.
Arbon considered the initiative of market stallholders a wake-up call for the enforcers of the Environment and Natural Resources Office (ENRO) to implement the 6-year-old ordinance that apart from the market it must be equally and fairly implemented outside the market complex. (Juancho Gallarde/PNA)
