Manila: The use of disposable plastic banderitas (flaglets) during the Feast of Sto. Ni±o has been condemned by an environmental group for being inconsistent with both local and global efforts to combat plastic pollution.
According to Philippines News Agency, the EcoWaste Coalition has issued a call to community leaders to abandon the use of plastic “labo” and other single-use plastic materials as decorative items, citing their detrimental impact on the environment and public health when discarded. “Buntings made of plastic labo and other single-use plastics go straight to garbage disposal sites after the festivities,” stated EcoWaste Coalition zero waste campaigner Ochie Tolentino. “We question the continued use of disposable banderitas in faith-inspired festivities, which only add to the perennial garbage woes facing our communities,” she added.
The group identified the presence of these plastic banderitas in the Pandacan and Tondo districts of Manila. Their use during fiestas was highlighted as contradictory to a resolution on plastic adopted at the 128th Plenary Assembly of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in July 2024. This resolution advocates for the eradication of plastic pollution as a key ecological action for the Catholic community.
In 2019, the bishops issued a pastoral letter on ecology titled ‘An Urgent Call for Ecological Conversion, Hope in the Face of Climate Emergency.’ This letter reaffirmed the church’s commitment to the principles of Laudato Si, Pope Francis’s encyclical focusing on care for the environment and humanity. It listed 13 ecological actions, one of which advises the faithful to ‘live simply, minimize consumption, and actively promote ecological awareness and action through integral waste segregation and by minimizing the use of plastic and paper, by eliminating single-use plastics, polystyrene, and the like, from our homes and institutions.’
Tolentino urged the public to center their faith-rooted celebrations around the protection of the environment and people.
