July 9, 2025
Choking our cities, drowning our future
Topics: Ban Single-Use Plastics
It’s the rainy season once again. Every time torrential rains lash Metro Manila, Cebu City, Davao City and other major Philippine cities, the scenes are tragically familiar: flooded roads, stranded commuters, submerged homes, and overflowing waterways. But what is often ignored by many is the fact that single-use plastics play a big part in aggravating this perennial crisis.
In urban areas across the country, plastic waste – particularly single-use plastics like sachets, bags, cups, and straws – clogs drainage systems, creeks, and rivers. When stormwater can’t pass through blocked canals, it spills onto streets and neighborhoods, triggering widespread flooding even during short but intense downpours. This problem is not just a nuisance; it endangers lives, damages infrastructure, and disrupts local economies.
Plastic waste: from convenience to crisis
Filipinos use almost 164 million sachets and 48 million plastic bags daily, according to the Waste Assessments and Brand Audit report by the Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) in 2019. Many of these single-use plastics are neither recyclable nor reusable, contrary to claims of some of the manufacturers that use these. That is why they end up in trash heaps and esteros —or worse, in storm drains.
Oceana has long been sounding the alarm about plastic pollution for years. At the heart of its advocacy is a clear, urgent call: the government should fully implement the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act (Republic Act 9003) and ban single use plastics.
The veiled cost of plastics
Flooding causes economic and social disruption in many Philippine cities. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) disclosed that 70% of Metro Manila’s drainage systems are clogged with garbage and silt, much of it plastic waste. Despite billions in flood control spending, flooding worsens due to clogged waterways across urban areas.
Plastic pollution has also been tied to vector-borne diseases like dengue and leptospirosis, which spike during floods. Pools of water trapped by plastic waste become breeding grounds for mosquitoes, compounding the public health impact.
The ocean connection
While flooding is essentially an urban crisis, plastic pollution doesn’t stop at city limits. Much of the plastic waste washed into rivers eventually flows into the ocean, where it causes further harm.
Marine animals mistake plastics for food, suffer entanglement, and face starvation or injury. Coral reefs that are vital for biodiversity and fisheries, are also smothered by plastic debris. A study published in Science shows that corals draped in plastic are up to 20 times more likely to suffer from diseases.
Oceana believes that strong implementation of laws and policies dealing with single-use plastics, industries contributing to mounting plastic pollution held accountable, and public awareness are key.
Urgent call to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In response to this growing crisis, we call on President Marcos Jr. to order the National Solid Waste Management Commission, led by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to release the list of Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products and Packaging (NEAPP) that includes single-use plastics, which is more than two decades overdue. The NEAPP list should render the ban of single-use plastics in effect and the manufacturing, importation, use and much more, disposal of these menaces will discontinue.
Oceana urges the President and his cabinet to perform their mandates, not just because it is an environmental concern but also because it is necessary for disaster risk reduction, public health, and economic stability.
What can citizens do?
Oceana encourages Wavemakers to:
- reduce their use of plastics
- support local ordinances banning single-use plastics
- hold brands and companies accountable for the waste they generate
- demand that their local and national leaders act on the plastic crisis
The Philippines cannot afford to treat plastic pollution and flooding as separate issues; they are deeply interconnected, and solving one means confronting the other. Oceana renews its call for a cleaner, safer future: one where waterways flow freely, streets stay dry during storms, and our oceans remain rich and alive. (END)