Manila: An audit in the Philippines has shown the country uses a “shocking” amount of single-use plastic, including nearly 60 billion sachets a year, a new report said on Friday. The report, produced by the NGO GAIA, is part of an effort to collect data on plastic consumption as environmentalists push for government action to reduce plastic waste.
It contains eye-popping figures: every day, almost 57 million shopping bags are used throughout the Philippines, adding up to more than 20 billion a year. And that figure does not include the smaller, thinner and often transparent plastic bags known as “labo” bags — around 16.5 billion of those are used per year across the country, the report says.
