The EcoWaste Coalition urged church and community leaders to forbid the hanging of fiesta buntings or “banderitas.”
“The group pointed out that the buntings have no aesthetic, functional, or spiritual value and could pollute the oceans and harm marine animals,” reports Rhodina Villanueva in The Philippine Star.
Referring to the buntings hung in Pandacan and Tondo for the recent Feast of the Sto. Niño, EcoWaste Coalition coordinator Aileen Lucero said they are deeply concerned by the “unrestrained practice of filling the streets with banderitas that are hardly reused or recycled after the revelry.”
Lucero added that many of the buntings used “ultra-thin plastic,” which are easily blown away into storm drains and end up in oceans, killing aquatic animals that mistake them for food.
The EcoWaste Coalition likewise slammed the use of colorful polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic sheets in buntings because they are laced with toxic metals such as lead.
The group went on to say that if people really want to hang banderitas, then they should find reusable materials for it.
