PH Groups' Joint Letter to DENR Ahead of Plastics Treaty INC-5 Meetings

Dear Secretary Yulo-Loyzaga,

Greetings!

As the Philippine delegation prepares for the final meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Global Plastics Treaty (INC-5) this November 25-December 1 in Busan, South Korea, we, the undersigned organizations, urge the government to maintain and reinforce the positions that the Philippines has taken thus far towards an ambitious and effective plastics treaty.

In particular, we support the following (quoting from the DENR briefer on the Philippine position):

• Global aggregate reduction in primary plastic polymer … that promotes sustainable production and consumption of plastics through upstream measures.
• A globally harmonized approach to develop criteria that will identify problematic and avoidable plastic products.
• Measures to avoid health risk through the elimination of chemicals of concern in plastics through the establishment of clear criteria that will ensure that plastics, throughout their lifecycle, are safe to human health and the environment.
• Binding global requirements on product design and performance to ensure reduction, reuse, and safe recycling for all plastic products through a globally harmonized, criteria-based approach that would drive innovation, reduce waste, and foster a more sustainable circular plastics economy.
• Global mitigation actions to address greenhouse gas emissions from plastic industry’s extraction and production through reduction or avoidance of primary plastic polymers.
• The “concept of essential use” that phaseouts or bans and timetables should consider whether or not a plastic product has essential use … and whether safe and sustainable alternatives or substitutes with similar functionality are or will become available.
• [Consideration of] national capabilities and circumstances … [that] could mean time-bound exemptions, financial assistance, technology access, and capacity building … to shift or transition to safer and more sustainable plastic products.
• A comprehensive finance package that leverages all available sources, including public and private financing and aligns financial flows with the treaty's objectives to provide predictable, adequate, and accessible financing for the implementation of specific binding measures.

Given the grave environmental and health impacts of plastic pollution on the Philippines, we will continue to support and champion the above positions that the Philippine delegation has consistently taken, in keeping with the results of past stakeholder consultations. 

In addition, we call on our government to intensify its support for the following:

• Explicitly recognizing that the treaty's overall objective is to protect human health and the environment from plastic pollution.
• Addressing the impacts at all stages of the full life cycle of plastics.
• Prioritizing upstream measures such as prevention, production reduction,  reuse-and-refill models, promoting safer and more sustainable alternatives, product redesign (towards material and energy efficiency, repairability, repurposing, remanufacturing, and safe recyclability), while opposing greenwashing technologies and systems that divert resources from effective solutions.
• Adopting a systems approach to product design, considering that products designed for reusability or refillability have to be part of a system and infrastructure to ensure their reuse/refilling at scale.
• Applying the precautionary principle in defining “safety” including health and environmental impacts.
• Pursuing WHO’s “One Health” approach to improve public health, environmental and sustainable development outcomes, and collaborating with the health sector. Applying this holistic approach to plastics will strengthen the foundation and design of policies within a plastics treaty, ensuring that both health risks and environmental impacts are comprehensively evaluated.
• Evaluating safety, sustainability, socioeconomic impacts, contributions to the triple planetary crises (climate change, biodiversity loss, and global pollution) and equity and human rights, in assessing problematic plastic products as well as plastic and non-plastic alternatives.
• Addressing legacy plastic pollution through environmentally-sound remediation" to preclude dirty technologies.
• Utilizing a criteria and a chemical class-based approach in eliminating, restricting and phasing out of chemicals of concern such as hazardous groups of chemicals which cause cancer, genetic mutations, reproductive harm, endocrine disruption, and kidney and liver damage, among others, and of nano-plastics and microplastics which are now found in all major species of fish tested in the Philippines. These criteria should include health risks and harmfulness to human health, including bioaccumulation and toxic long-term effects and the potential for human exposure.
• Requiring globally-harmonized transparency and traceability mechanisms (including disclosure of information essential to assess safety, health impacts, and sustainability), monitoring, tracking, and  traceability of plastic polymers and their production, plastic products and chemicals used across the plastic supply chain.
• Endorsing a proposed multi-disciplinary science-policy panel that is geographically represented, transparent, independent, and free from conflicts of interest, to provide science-based recommendations to the governing body.
• Supporting Just Transition to ensure that waste workers, women and youth, indigenous peoples, workers in the plastics industry, frontline communities, and other vulnerable sectors do not bear the burden of a transition to a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable future.
• Pursuing a Dedicated Fund aimed at supporting the implementation and compliance of the International Legally Binding Instrument (ILBI) on plastic pollution, with prioritized support for developing countries like the Philippines.

By maintaining its stated position and adopting the additional recommendations above, the government can truly fulfill its constitutional mandate of safeguarding our people’s right to a clean and healthy environment. This would also align with a  recent  Censuswide poll that found 94% of Filipinos support an ambitious global plastics treaty with plastic production caps, which significantly stops plastic pollution, prevents biodiversity loss, and limits global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

We understand, however, that industry representatives and a few powerful and wealthy countries wishing to protect the interests of their plastics and petrochemical industries may try to influence the Philippines to weaken its positions. This would be detrimental to the interests of the  Filipino people who are already bearing the brunt of the interconnected climate, biodiversity and plastic crises.  As much as we are willing to support the Philippine delegation in advocating for the above positions, we are also prepared to expose and oppose any reversal or weakening of positions that would infringe on the rights of Filipinos to health and to a balanced and healthful ecology. 

In summary, an ambitious and effective Global Plastics Treaty—with global, legally binding obligations applied across the full life cycle, including substantial reductions in the production of primary plastic polymers, elimination of chemicals of concern in plastics, globally harmonized requirements for safe and sustainable plastic products, adoption of reuse systems and targets,  transparency and monitoring, time-bound exemptions based on national circumstances, mechanisms for dedicated financial and technical assistance and capacity building to assist developing countries, and a just transition, among others—is in the best interest of current and future generations of Filipinos. 

We look forward to working with DENR and other agencies in a whole-of-society approach to comply with future obligations of an ambitious and effective Global Plastics Treaty to end plastic pollution. 

Sincerely,

1. Aksyon Klima Pilipinas
2. Assistance and Cooperation for Community Resilience and Development (ACCORD)
3. Archdiocese of Manila integral Ecology Ministry
4. ASH Philippines
5. Bagong Silangan Resource Collectors’ Association (BaSiRCA)
6. BAN Toxics
7. Bantay Pawikan Inc.
8. Barangay San Roque Fisherfolks Association (BSFA)
9. Batangas 2 Fishermen's Association
10. Break Free from Plastic
11. Brgy 33 Peñaranda Eco Negosyo Association (Legazpi, Albay)
12. Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino - NCRR
13. Calapan City Association of Palero, Inc. (Oriental Mindoro)
14. Caritas Philippines
15. Cavite Green Coalition
16. Citizens Organization Concerned with Advocating Philippine Environmental Sustainability (COCAP Philippines)
17. Consumer Rights for Safe Food (CRSF)
18. CREST - Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology
19. Diocese of Imus (DIMEC)
20. Disaster Risk Reduction Network Philippines (DRRNetPhils)
21. Dumaguete Women Waste Worker (Dumaguete City)
22. Ecoteneo - Ateneo de Davao University
23. EcoWaste Coalition
24. Ecosystems Work for Essential Benefits, Inc. (ECOWEB)
25. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance, Philippines
26. GAIA Asia Pacific
27. Green Forum Panay Guimaras, Inc.
28. Greenpeace Philippines
29. Health Care Without Harm
30. Institute for the Development of Educational and Ecological Alternatives, Inc. (IDEAS)
31. Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS), Inc. (Davao City)
32. International Pollutants Elimination Network Southeast and East Asia (IPEN SEA)
33. Kalipunan ng Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal at Junkshop (KASAMAJ)
34. Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center-Friends of the Earth Philippines
35. LURHA Tejero - Lot 1 Residence Home Owners Association
36. Malabon Navotas Waste Workers Association (MaNaWWa)
37. Mamamayan Ayaw sa Aerial Spray (MAAS), Davao
38. Managing Alternatives Groups, Inc. (MAGI)
39. Médecins du Monde (France)
40. Mother Earth Foundation
41. Nagkakaisang Lakas ng mga Mangangalakal ng Longos
42. Negrosanon Initiative for Climate and the Environment
43. Oceana Philippines International
44. Pag-asa Pawikan Protection and Conservation Center Corp.
45. Partnership for Clean Air (PCA)
46. Phil. Earth Justice Center
47. Philippine National Waste Workers Alliance
48. Pinagisang Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal ng Longos at Capulong (PSMLC)
49. Plastic Free Bohol
50. Prof. Cherry Ballescas
51. Samahang Muling Pagkabuhay - Multi Purpose Cooperative
52. Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal sa Bagong Silang
53. Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal ng Scrap ng Capulong
54. Samahan ng mga Mangangalakal ng San Vicente Ferrer, Camarin, Caloocan City
55. San Jose Sico Landfill Multipurpose Cooperative (Batangas City)
56. Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance, Inc.
57. Sawsawan Waste Pickers (SWP)
58. Siquijor Waste Workers Association (Siquijor Island)
59. Sitio Mahayag Alliance for Socialized Housing (SMASH)
60. TCUPHAI Home Owners Ass. Inc.
61. Urban Poor Associates (Navotas)
62. Women Waste Warrior (Manila City)
63. Zero Waste Baguio Incorporated
64. Zero Waste Cities Network - Philippines