If Noli Jimenez, senior product manager of First in Colours, Inc. (FIC)/D & L Polymer & Colours, Inc., had not brought it to my attention, I would not have known that the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Product Standards (BPS), the national standards body and a member of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), had issued the Philippine National Standards (PNS) on plastic shopping bags.

PNS 2097:2014 defines a plastic shopping bag as a flexible plastic material used for containing and transporting goods. It provides the general characteristics, safety and labeling requirements for plastic shopping bags and classifies them into biodegradable, biodegradable plastic, compostable plastic, composting, degradable plastic, oxidatively degradable plastic, plastic, polymer, and recyclable.

PNS 2097, which was prepared by the BPS Technical Committee on Packaging and Packaging Materials, with the BPS Technical Committee on Plastics and Plastic Products, also sets the maximum allowable concentration of heavy metals and other toxic hazardous substances, and the degradation requirements for a plastic shopping bag.

The committees used PNS 2102:2013, specifications for compostable plastic; PNS 2104:2011, standard specification for plastics that degrade in the environment by a combination of oxidation and biodegration; and PNS/BHT ISO 8124-1:2008, safety of toys—aspects related to mechanical and physical properties.

The BPS standards are meant primarily to guide users. Since the ban on the use of plastic bags by commercial establishments is a decision made by individual local governments, it will be up to them if they will amend their respective ordinances to reflect these standards or keep the almost total prohibition on the use of plastic bags.

But, as one DTI official said, the bigger problem would be how to make public market, street and ambulant vendors follow the standards. In the first place, while big commercial establishments and restaurants comply with the no-plastic ordinance, many vendors continue to use plastic bags, which get thrown away anywhere and everywhere, clogging drains and causing flooding.

These new standards on plastic packaging will most likely be completely ignored by these vendors.

Feedback

Nimfa Doroteo-Camua, reacting to a previous column on Consumer Month, wrote, “There is not a hint to inform people that October is Consumer Welfare Month. And, sad to say, most people do not know that, as consumers, they have every right to demand truth and respect from vendors/sellers/business establishments.”

On a positive note, Camua said, while many, if not most, establishments outside Metro Manila do not give seniors the 20-percent discount mandated by law, “The last time I was on vacation in Puerto Princesa City, the tricycle driver gave me a senior discount! He said they gave that to all seniors… In my subdivision in Cainta, Rizal, that’s unheard of!”

Camua also wanted this column to help her find out where Bragg’s apple cider vinegar had gone. “Those who use Bragg’s apple cider vinegar (the pure one, not the flavored version) for health reasons would like to know why it is no longer found in grocery shelves. Some say someone buys them in bulk for unknown reason. Others claim that some interest groups do not want people to use this because it is a loss to medical practitioners. I even called up the importers, but they said they did not know! Whatever the reason, consumers deserve to know what’s up.”

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