EDITORIAL - Disposal ordinance good, just make sure it is enforceable

In an editorial last year we mentioned that an environmental crisis may soon follow this pandemic crisis, because we have to deal with the increasing waste resulting from the need to protect ourselves and to save others from the coronavirus.

This is slowly becoming a reality. More and more we are starting to see face masks, face shields, gloves, and other personal protective equipment appearing in our daily trash production. Sometimes they are even just recklessly discarded as single items in the streets, canals, rivers, and other bodies of water.

In line with this the city has passed an ordinance calling for the proper disposal of such items.

“The reckless disposal of COVID-19 protective gears and products, particularly potentially infectious face masks, poses a threat to human health and environment and goes against the efforts of the government to clean up the city,” read the ordinance authored by Councilor Alvin Dizon.

The ordinance also calls for the disposal of face masks by cutting them in half, disinfecting them with bleach, before putting them in a plastic bag, ideally a yellow one so collectors will immediately know what they are dealing with.

This ordinance is good. Although enforcing it might be somewhat of a challenge.

Considering that many households dispose of their garbage in the dead of night, enforcers might have a hard time finding out who is leaving unsanitized, uncut masks, and other PPE in garbage collection areas.

Then there is the matter of dealing with the really hard-headed people. Those who refuse comply. Are trash collectors allowed not to collect such trash that has not been cut and sanitized, considering the risk it poses to them and the environment, to teach stubborn people a lesson?

Unless someone is caught in flagrante delicto disposing of a PPE item or items in public, it may also be difficult to trace who so carelessly disposed of such. Short of DNA testing or video evidence, it will be difficult to prove that that trash really belongs to a particular person.

Don’t get us wrong, we aren’t against the ordinance per se. But an ordinance is only effective if it can be enforced properly. We look forward to the authorities coming up with effective ways to carry it out.