OVERKILL CONSUMER PACKAGING

 

OVERKILL CONSUMER PACKAGING

Who has the jurisdiction over the use of non-biodegradable materials in consumer packaging? Is it the DENR, or is it the DTI? Or is it neither? I know that there is no such thing as a “packaging police”, but in the absence of that, who is watching over all manufacturers as they use too much pollutant materials in their packaging, such as plastics?

While some might say that common sense is no longer common nowadays, I think that most of us could tell with just one look that many consumer products are overpackaged, with overkill plastics, so to speak. It really does not make sense, because the manufacturers could actually save money by decreasing the packaging overload, but why are they still doing it?

While there is possibly still a gray area as to who has the real jurisdiction between the DTI and the DENR, there is a chance that it could be a shared responsibility between the Bureau of Philippine Standards (BPS) under the DTI, and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the DENR. It seems that the BPS can approve the products before these are released to the market, and the EMB can check for violations.

There is really nothing wrong with overkill packaging, for as long as the materials used are biodegradable. However, there is a caveat to that, because the more overkill, the more the carbon footprint is created. Eventually, the consumers will decide what products they will buy. IKE SENERES/03-21-24

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