- The initiative seeks to promote the project that regulates single-use plastics, disposables and bottles
- Within the next few days, the Environment Commission of the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies will begin the review of the bill
Santiago, August 11, 2020. Under the slogan “Let’s look at the Present, Change the Future”, the marine conservation organization Oceana and Plastic Oceans Chile launched the #OcéanosSinPlásticos campaign , awaiting the prompt approval in the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies of the project of law that regulates single-use plastics and disposable bottles. In a video starring the actress María José Prieto *, it seeks to raise awareness about the serious environmental damage that plastic pollution is causing in marine ecosystems.
“It is no longer enough to know about the problem of plastic in the environment, the idea of this campaign is to show that there are alternatives, that we have time, but that we must act now,” said the actress. “Through different videos we will be showing the ways in which we can reduce the use of plastic and disposables, with the idea that we all join in this crusade. It is time to take action and stop the irreversible damage that plastics cause in the oceans ”, added María José Prieto.
The campaign calls for rethinking the consumption of unnecessary plastic items and replacing them with reusable ones, considering that 75% of the waste found on the beaches in Chile corresponds to products made of this material, such as bottles, light bulbs and containers of pen, among others. .
“We are facing a bill on which there is a cross-sectional support base and which was unanimously approved in the Senate a few weeks ago,” said Javiera Calisto, Director of Oceana Chile’s Marine Pollution Campaign. “It seeks to limit one of the major sources of pollution of the seas, promoting initiatives such as prevention in the use of disposable plastics, reuse, in addition to encouraging the use of more sustainable materials and thus prevent this type of garbage from reaching the.
It must be considered that a large part of the disposable plastics reach the ocean, where they are fragmented into small pieces, directly affecting the marine fauna that consumes them and the humans that feed on marine resources. On the other hand, the production of plastic uses oil as its raw material, which contributes to increasing greenhouse gases, directly affecting climate change.
From Plastic Oceans Chile they warn that plastic can cause damage to marine fauna, “causing functional damage in the species that ingest it, physical injuries, loss of internal regulation, liver stress, endocrine alterations, as well as various cellular damage, including responses inflammatory diseases, ”said Camila Ahrendt, Scientific Director of Plastic Oceans Latin America. “In terms of size, the smaller the plastic particle, the greater the availability and probability of being ingested and transferred to larger organisms,” he added.
The bill
On July 8, the Senate unanimously approved the bill that regulates single-use plastics, disposables and plastic bottles, which was presented by a cross-sectional group of senators based on a joint work carried out with Oceana Chile. and Plastic Oceans Chile. This study developed a baseline on the situation of plastics in Chile and included an analysis of legislation in other countries on this matter.
As a result of this report, a bill was presented that seeks to limit the generation of disposable products and regulate plastics, especially those that are small and are discarded after a few minutes of use, which, due to their low economic value and their high cost of collection and classification, they are not recycled.
The proposed norm is directed to establishments that sell food such as restaurants, cafeterias, cookshops and other places that serve prepared food or beverages, which must offer reusable products such as china, wood, glass or similar. In the case of businesses that sell take-out food, they must deliver disposables other than plastic, such as aluminum, paper, cardboard or certified disposable plastics.
Regulated products include glasses, cups, bowls, cutlery, mixers, toothpicks, wells, bulbs, plates, boxes, cups, sachets, placemats, prepared food containers or trays, and non-bottle lids.
The law seeks to exhaustively regulate disposable plastic bottles and encourages the use of returnable bottles to complement the Extended Producer Responsibility Law (REP). It is established that both large supermarkets and electronic commerce must offer returnable bottles to consumers, while disposable bottles will only be allowed as long as they contain recycled material that was collected in Chile. In addition, the percentage of recycled material in the bottles should increase progressively, starting with 25% in 2025 to reach 70% in 2050.
The legal initiative, one of the most ambitious in the world and which has the transversal support of different banks and the Ministry of the Environment, would come into effect progressively within a period of three years after its approval.
* This material was recorded when COVID 19 had not yet arrived in Chile