Destructive plastic bags

By: Dr. Esther L. Baraceros

Philippine Daily Inquirer

WHICH PARTICULAR place in a barrio, a town or a city repeatedly gathers a lot of people any time of the day, especially early in the morning or late in the afternoon? The answer is: Market! Market! Market!

Yes. In this place, your attention is caught by all kinds of fish, vegetable, fruit, meat or dairy product. Here, you also see people prone to doing things that aggravate the country’s problems: garbage disposal, perennial floods, polluted environment or climate change. Once you are here, you get to observe buyer-seller transactions that make plastic bags part and parcel of any commercial agreement. Apparently, putting the object of the transaction inside the plastic bag signals the end of the business deal.

Plastic bag for bangus, plastic bag for ampalaya, plastic bag for tomatoes, plastic bag for this and that and so on and so forth. Every item, big or small, cheap or costly, wet or dry, goes into a plastic bag. Buy just a single item; say, one camote, one apple, or one sayote, and right away, the seller opens a plastic bag and shoots the lone item into this ubiquitous but problem-giving container.

In fact, a wet or watery item like fish or chicken settles not only into one plastic bag but into two or three. One kilo of galunggong is placed inside a first plastic bag that is small, thin and transparent; this is then thrust into the second plastic bag that is bigger, thicker and translucent, with a handle; finally, the already-twice-covered galunggong is placed inside a third plastic bag that is the biggest and the thickest, and with a sturdier handle. To accommodate a mixture of purchased items, this third one, the “major-major” plastic bag, needs to be the strongest among the three plastic bags.

So, now, do your math. Count the number of people buying things from the market plus the number of items they take home daily. Start from vegetables: eggplants, ampalaya, tomatoes, onions, etc.; next, meat: pork, beef, lobsters, etc.; then, fruits: atis, mangoes, oranges, etc; and, groceries: sardines, milk, coffee, soaps, oil, etc. Unless these are bought at a big supermarket, not a single one of these enumerated items is exempt from sloping down into three different plastic bags. Thus, every day, each market buyer accumulates more than a dozen plastic bags in his or her house. Multiply the number of market buyers with the approximate number of plastic bags taken home by the buyers, and what do you get? Thousands and thousands of used plastic bags in a city in one day!

One thing more: Not all these used plastic bags are disposed of properly. Light as kites that are easily blown by the wind, several of these plastic bags travel from place to place or dangle from one structure to another. Further, the use of these plastic bags by some barangays as town-fiesta decorations contribute to the easy and speedy travel of these plastic bags.

In some places, you see plastic bags bulging with garbage that people purposely hang from the trunk of a tree. Try roaming some streets in the city or in several not-so-posh subdivisions in Metro Manila, and witness a tree trunk in front of two or more houses used as a hanging garbage can. With many colored plastic bags hanging from every side or from the lowest branches, the pitiful tree appears like a Christmas tree.

Think of trees carrying heavy loads of garbage until the arrival of a city-garbage truck collector, or their exposure to pollution and vandalism. Definitely, trees put in this pitiful situation, lacking love and care from people around them, refuse to grow robustly and abundantly in any area. Treating trees in this manner means disregarding the beneficial effects of trees to humanity.

Much has been written and said about climate change, going green, planting trees and so on. Likewise, words have appeared in some daily papers about the Senate’s drafting of a law prohibiting the excessive production and use of plastics. Cognizant of the damaging effects of the extensive and wanton use of plastic bags, the Senate must work on this plastic bill in an expedient and fast-tracked manner. I hope one provision of this law will impose a penalty on people caught hanging plastic garbage bags from the trunk of a tree, and on residents using plastic bags as banners or decorations during town fiestas.

Dr. Esther L. Baraceros is a faculty member of the College of Architecture at the University of Santo Tomas.

DENR moves to deliver a cleaner Manila Bay

February 07, 2011 03:51:00
Kristine L. Alave 
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has beefed up the Manila Bay Coordinating Office (MBCO) in a bid to hasten the clean-up of the body of water that serves as a repository of much of Metro Manila’s waste and, ironically, as the foreground to one of the most spectacular sunsets in the world.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje has issued DENR Administrative Order No. 2011-01 titled “Strengthening the Manila Bay Coordinating Office” which puts the office under the supervision of the DENR secretary.

Prior to the order, the MBCO was part of the DENR’s River Basin Control Office which oversees the integrated planning, management, rehabilitation and development of all the country’s river basins.

“The objective of this organizational reform is to ensure that appropriate focus will be given to the delivery of obligations of the DENR to clean up Manila Bay, as ordered by the Supreme Court,” said Paje. He designated Noel V. Gaerlan to head the MBCO.

Under the administrative order, the MBCO will coordinate the participation of various agencies in the bay’s rehabilitation, restoration and conservation. It would also lead in the planning, monitoring and review of all related activities and their progress, as well as in the preparation of reports required by the DENR and the Supreme Court.

“AO 2011-01 is one of the strategies under the operational plan for Manila Bay that allows us to formulate and implement policies and institutional mechanisms for the bay’s sustainable development. It reflects a more cohesive collaboration among all partners involved, in both the national and local levels,” Paje said.

In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that the DENR had a mandate to clean up Manila Bay, well-known for its dramatic sunsets and bay cruises. The case stemmed from a complaint filed by residents living near the bay who accused the government of neglecting to clean it up.

In its ruling, the SC ordered the upgraded reclassification of the bay’s water quality to Class SB to make its waters safe for swimming, skin-diving and other forms of water recreation.

At present, the DENR said Manila Bay’s waters are classified as Class SC, which means it is only fit for recreational activities such as boating.

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Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Using plants to clean up contaminated water, soil

By Augustine Ignatius Doronila

IT IS not unusual to see, read or hear about environmental problems these days. Pollution has become so common that we appear resigned to the fact that this is part of modernization.

At times, it may seem that the cleanup would require a very expensive and highly sophisticated process. Have you ever thought that we could use plants to clean up contaminated soil and water?

Increased interest

Over the past 20 years there has been interest in using a series of technologies called phytoremediation (phyto = plant and remediation = providing a remedy) to provide a solution to many polluted areas.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has encouraged research on using plants to remediate manmade contaminants through several mechanisms.

Some plants destroy organic pollutants by degrading them directly through the production of acids and enzymes which attack these compounds. Other plants aid in degradation indirectly by supporting microbial communities in the soil which will decompose the pollutants. There are other plants that take up inorganic contaminants such as heavy metals from soil or water and concentrate them in the plant tissue or root.

Extraction technique

Using different plants, phytoremediation can be applied as a containment measure for decomposition of the pollutant or as a removal or extraction technique.

Through the development and evaluation of new, soft, appropriate and efficient biological processes, it is possible to remove, contain or render harmless environmental contaminants (toxic metals and difficult-to-destroy organic pollutants) in waste waters and sites heavily affected by industrial, mining or urban activities.

Attractive technology

The technology is attractive because the cost of phytoremediation techniques is estimated to be from 20 to 50 percent less than the highly engineered physical, chemical or thermal techniques.

Moreover, there are limited funds available for environmental cleanup. This alone is relevant to less economically developed countries which have suffered a legacy of chemical pollution and are unable to provide substantial funding to immediately remove the pollutant source.

Phytoremediation is still a young technology that seeks to harness the metabolic capabilities and growth habits of higher plants. Delivering a cheap, soft and safe biological treatment applicable to specific contaminated sites and wastewaters is a relatively recent development.

Low cost, low impact

The European Union through its COST Action 837 program, which presented its major findings in October 2009 in Ascona, Switzerland, showed that there was still a significant need to pursue both fundamental and applied research to provide low-cost, low-impact, visually benign and environmentally sound remediation strategies.

It is well-suited for use at very large sites where other methods of remediation are not cost-effective or practicable; at sites with low concentrations of contaminants where only “polishing treatment” is required over long periods of time; and in conjunction with other technologies where vegetation is used as a final cap and closure of the site.

The concept of using plants to clean up contaminated environments is not new. Approximately 300 years ago, plants were proposed for use in the treatment of wastewater in Berlin, Germany. Plant species have been discovered to accumulate metals to such high concentrations, usually 1,000 times, considered toxic to a typical plant.

European plant species

They have been called metal hyperaccumulating plants. At the end of the 19th century, two European plant species, the penny cress (Thlaspi caerulescens) and a small violet (Viola calaminaria), were the first plant species documented to accumulate high levels of metals in leaves.

In 1948, Tuscan scientists Minguzzi and Vergnano identified plants able to accumulate up to 1 percent Ni (nickel) in shoots which is 10,000 times more than what a typical plant would have in leaf tissues.

Bronze Age

Some unusual plants have been discovered to grow in soils which are naturally rich in metals as well as in ancient and abandoned mining sites from the time of the Bronze Age circa 3000 BC.

Toxic

Important metals for our modern lifestyles such as nickel, copper, zinc and lead are also invariably toxic if they become dissolved in water.

The idea of using plants to extract metals from contaminated soil was subsequently revived about 30 years ago and developed by Utsunamyia (Japan) and Chaney (US). The first field trial on zinc and cadmium phytoextraction was conducted in 1991 by Baker and his colleagues.

There has been extensive research in the past two decades with major developments occurring in the technologically advanced nations. Despite significant success, the understanding of how a plant does metal extraction is still emerging. The agronomic practices to improve the extraction are still being optimized.

Growing market

According to the EPA, the US phytoremediation market has grown significantly. It expanded from $30 million in 1995 to $49 million in 1999. This may also become a technology of choice for remediation projects in developing countries because it is cost-efficient and easy to implement.

It has only been in the past 10 years that phytoremediation studies have been undertaken in tropical regions. These are invariably emerging markets which are experiencing major pollution problems due to rapid industrialization. The countries which have taken the lead in harnessing this green technology are China, Thailand, Brazil, Chile and India.

Spectacular discovery

One of the most spectacular discoveries of a hyperaccumulating plant occurred in China in 1999. Prof. Tongbin Chen and his team from the Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Science discovered a species of Chinese brake fern (Pteris vitatta) [a species of pacô] which can grow healthily in arsenic-rich soils.

Before this discovery no plant in the world had been found able to hyperaccumulate arsenic to a concentration of more than 1,000 milligrams per kilogram. So far, Chen’s team has identified a total of 16 native Chinese plants able to absorb arsenic, lead, copper and other heavy metals from soil.

By 2005, Chen’s research program in the southern Chinese province of Chenzhou had achieved success. The team conducted a field trial in Dengjiatang, a township in Hunan’s Chenzhou, where land was polluted by an arsenic smelter.

As a result of heavy arsenic pollution, two people died and most of the grains harvested in the area were contaminated.

Mei Lei, one of the researchers, reported that the arsenic level in the heavily polluted soil had dramatically decreased by half. The cost of using the fern to clean up the contaminated soil was at most one-tenth of the chemical cleaning methods.

Philippine plants

What about the Philippines? Our archipelago also has metal hyperaccumulating plants. In 1986, a British scientific expedition led by Proctor and Baker discovered four nickel hyperaccumulators.

One of these plant species, Phyllanthus balgooyi, accumulated Ni to very extreme concentration of 88,000 milligrams per kg or 8.8 percent. The metal was concentrated in a jade-green sap in a layer of wood just beneath the bark.

It has been recognized that the country may actually harbor many more of these hyperaccumulator species because of the unique geology of the nickel-rich rocks where these species can be found.

Biodiversity

Some world authorities such as Baker and Reeves feel that we are on the cusp of something significant because their intuitions from work in other parts of the world strongly suggest that our country is the habitat of a very large number of these specialized species.

The other biodiverse regions for these plants are in Cuba and New Caledonia.

Zambales

At the end of February 2009, I went on a field trip with Rene Claveria, a geologist and chair of the Department of Environmental Science, Ateneo de Manila University, and two graduate students to a nickel-rich area in Acoje, Zambales.

The mine operator, Rusina Mining, provided us generous logistic support. That initial survey resulted in a discovery of a new Ni hyperaccumulator which has sparked fresh enthusiasm to systematically discover these unique species which belongs to the genus Breynia in the plant family Phyllanthaceae.

It was a thrill to follow on from my mentor, Professor Emeritus Alan Baker, after their pioneering expedition and discovery in Palawan 24 years ago.

The Ateneo environmental scientists have subsequently followed up the initial find with a series of field trips to study the ecology. They also have initiated studies to understand its propagation and the molecules synthesized by the plants to accumulate the metal.

The analytical work has showed that this species will significantly accumulate Ni with concentrations of up to 0.9 percent in the leaf dry matter. The soils from which the plants were collected only had a third of the Ni concentration of the dry leaf matter. Bear in mind that the economic minerals underneath the vegetation contains at least 1.2 percent Ni.

Fast growing

These fast-growing high biomass plants may provide a harvestable valuable “metal crop from spent mineral resources” for post-mining communities. There is an urgent need to discover plants that can be used for the phytoextraction system.

In a recent conversation with journalist Maridel Andanar-Martinez, of the Australian Multicultural Special Broadcasting Service-Filipino program “Radyo SBS,” she aptly described these plants as “[mga] tanim na sumisipsip ng nikel sa ilalim ng lupa (plants that suck nickel from the soil).”

Understanding why and how these plants tolerate toxic conditions is important in providing a better way to restore highly disturbed areas.

Sustainable land use

There are rare examples in the tropical world and the Philippines has had very few of these species discovered in a systematic way. This initial finding and several recent discoveries by other Filipino research teams provide a window of opportunity for research and development of methods which may create novel avenues for long-term and economically sustainable land uses for local communities affected by mining.

(Augustine Doronila Ph.D. is a 2009 balikscientist awardee, research fellow, biogeochemist, restoration ecologist and post-mining reclamation expert. He is connected with the Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Research Group, School of Chemistry, University of Melbourne, Australia.)