DENR Bicol wants use of plastic minimized

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LEGAZPI CITY — In an effort to protect biodiversity and fight pollution, the Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (EMB-DENR) in Bicol has urged the Bicolanos and the local government units to minimize the utilization of plastic as more plastic wastes end up in the oceans.

OCEAN POLLUTION The Environment Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Bicol has urged the Bicolanos and the local government units to minimize the use of plastic which eventually ends up in the oceans like this heap at the Manila Bay. PHOTO BY RHAYDZ BARCIA

Maria Socorro Abu, director of the EMB-DENR, told The Manila Times that the Bicol Region contributes 6 tons of plastic wastes in the country and the sad reality is that it ends up in the oceans.

"We are urging the public and the local government units (LGUs) to minimize the use of plastic and so as to put the plastic in proper waste disposal," she said.

"What we are recommending is to avoid the plastic to go into the bodies of waters or end up in the oceans to control the pollution," she added.

Abu called on the public and the LGUs to avoid throwing plastic in the bodies of water as it is badly affecting the biodiversity, and urged the public and the LGUs to end plastic pollution through minimization of using plastic wastes.

Abu said that "ending plastic pollution starts at home, in our daily habits and in the small, conscious choice that we make."

The 2025 commemoration of Environment Month with the theme "Ending Global Plastic Pollution," according to Abu, is a reminder that the fight against plastic pollution is not just a campaign but a lifelong commitment that must begin today with the people's collective actions and voices.

She urged the public to cooperate to address plastic pollution and its sources.

"We need discipline, education and above all else is care for the environment, for our fellow human beings and for the future of our children," Abu said during the DENR Usapang Pangkalikasan, which kicked off the celebration of the Environment Month in the region.

In April 2022, Erden Eruc, then 60 years old, a world lone rower, disembarked in his yellow row boat from Legazpi City after nine months of journey from Crescent City in Northern California.

He had paddled across the earth's circumference along the equator, a journey of 42,472.2 kilometers (26,391 miles), just to see how plastic waste ended up in the seas and oceans from land.

Eruc told this reporter in an exclusive interview that he did not see the garbage patch but narrated that all plastic waste in seas and oceans come from land, whether dumped by local societies or carried by trade winds and currents.

Eruc, a Turkish-American, says his 18 world records have a purpose: to draw attention to critical levels of plastic waste choking life out in huge swathes of the earth's oceans.

Eruc described the Philippines as "a big dam that filters as the water hits the shores." He said that he witnessed up close the pollution in oceans and countries' internal waters.

As a rower, Eruc said he needs to follow the currents and the winds that necessarily take him around these big gyres formed though the rotating ocean currents.

During the course of his navigation, Eruc said that he encountered a lot of garbage along the way, especially as he came closer to the Philippines.

"As I came closer to the Philippines, I started seeing them every hour. The concentration of plastic garbage in the water went up because the wind and currents carried all of them, polluting the shores of the Philippines," he said.

"Water moves, but the plastic garbage stays. So, we have to make an effort to clean our beaches so that the plastic that arrives doesn't go back into the ocean. The garbage is there because of the irresponsible behavior of other nations and of the people. It is our task to make it (the sea) clean," he said.

The world solo rower and environmentalist urged leaders and the residents of coastal communities in the country to clear shorelines of plastic waste as marine animals like whales and sharks, and birds that feed from waters, could choke on trash as the Philippines catches other countries' plastic waste, Eruc said.

He said that the Philippines is a long way from northern California, 112 degrees in latitude due west, but catches a big volume of plastic waste from other countries.

Eruc is an ocean ambassador for Ocean Recovery Alliance, a nonprofit that champions new technologies, innovations, creativity and collaborations to solve issues challenging the health of oceans.

He also helps Dr. Jay Barlow of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in his survey of beaked whales.