Pro-environment group EcoWaste Coalition lauded the prompt response of the administrators of Manila’s Quiapo church to calls to remove single-use plastic buntings that were used as decorations.
“When we called the Quiapo church’s attention to the wasteful use of plastic buntings, we were confident that they would listen and they did listen,” said Jove Benosa, the group’s zero-waste campaigner.
“We laud Monsignor [Hernando] Coronel, rector and parish priest, for listening to our plea against the senseless use of disposable plastic decors that only add to plastic pollution,” added Benosa.
The group earlier called out the administrators of the church over the use of the plastic decorations, saying that it is “not in tune with the call for ecological conversion made by the Catholic bishops.”
EcoWast Coalition has been monitoring the use of plastic materials as buntings during fiestas as part of its advocacy for a zero-waste and toxics-free society.
In its statement on the decorations outside Quiapo church, the group called to mind the pastoral statement released in 2019 by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.
The bishops’ statement appealed for “continuing ecological conversion” and for “ecological actions,” including “eliminating single-use plastics,” to help address the “ecological crisis.”
The group expressed hope that more dioceses and parishes in the country will roll out policies and campaigns to reduce plastic consumption and disposal, especially of single-use plastics.
