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3.1. Banana Plantation’s Use of Harmful Pesticide Permanent soil contamination with copper resulting
Causes Air Pollution in permanent effects
Sediment production and transport to watersheds
Among the industries, the food industry also contributes a and seas
great part in the environment destruction including in the Death of animals, especially fish, caused by
local scene. According to the article “Environment- pesticide poisoning
Philippines: Aerial Spraying Case - Profits Vs Public Pesticide intoxication of workers and neighbors
Health”, big agribusiness corporations in Davao employ Appearance of secondary plagues resulting from
aerial spraying to kill ‘Sigatoka’, a fungus that attacks the excessive application of pesticides
leaves of banana plants and causes premature aging of fruits. Deforestation
Bananas, primarily grown in Davao, are a valued export
Water euthrophication (Azuma, 2001)
crop and earn for the Philippines over 400 million US
dollars in export revenue each year.
Dithane, which Banana plantations use, contains Pesticides are diverse and omnipresent. All pesticides
cancer-causing elements. Plantations are discontinuous and are toxic by their nature, and hence, they cause human and
patchy, and the planes used for the spraying are known to animal health hazards through exposure or dietary intake.
stray into the buffer zones around inhabited areas, violating Pesticide residues to the local environment (air, soil and
rules specified in environmental compliance certificates surface water) affect the lives of birds, wildlife, domestic
issued to the companies. animals, fish, livestock and human beings. According to the
Davao city officials, convinced that aerial spraying “Report on the Pesticides in the Philippines”, a total of 273
harms humans health and the environment, passed an cases of poisoning were reported in the Philippines, in
ordinance last year banning the aerial spraying of pesticides. which Insecticides from food manufacturing industry
They instead encouraged banana growers to use ground account for 71.3% of the poisoning incidents.
spraying as it’s safer. (Sarmiento, 2008)
According to the case study entitle “Philippine banana 3.2 Increasing Number of Plastics Generated from Food
and Japan”, there are several factors that contributed to the and Beverage Packaging
environmental damages. One is that there are extremely
toxic substances applied during the production. Clear cutting Plastics are synthetic substances produced by chemical
at riverbank and inadequate waste disposals are also major reactions. Almost all plastics are made from
causes. Aside from that, Waste water with chemical residues petroleum."Plastics" derived their name from their
coming from packaging plants and plantations ending up in properties to be molded, cast, extruded or processed into a
rivers without any treatment. There is also a lack of variety of forms, including solid objects, films and
monitoring system for water, soil and air conditions in filaments. These properties arise from their molecular
relation to pesticides. structure. Plastics are polymers, very long chain molecules
that consist of subunits (monomers) linked together by
chemical bonds. The monomers of petrochemical plastics
The following are the damages caused by the banana food are inorganic materials (such as styrene) and are not
production:
biodegradable.
Plastic has many properties which have made it a raw
Water, soil, marine, and air contamination material of choice for manufactures of plastic bags and
packing materials. Cost of production, light weight, 4. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
strength, easy process of manufacture, and availability are
few of the properties. Nowadays, man has simply not put the The Food and Beverage Industry consumes a large amount
plastic to the right use/ or using it without taking proper care of resources from water to other raw materials in order to
of other related norms of usage. Even though plastic bags manufacture a very large variety of products. Consequently,
can preserve food and can be used for growing vegetables in the waste, pollution, or simply put as environmental risks
a controlled environment, their method of disposal has are also just as high. In connection with this, the industry is
creates unprecedented pollution problem. now faced with a great challenge to create innovations or
The hazards plastics pose are numerous. The land gets changes to reverse the negative contribution of the industry
littered by plastic bag garbage presenting an ugly and in different environmental problems or issues world-wide.
unhygienic seen. The "Throw away culture" results in these In order for the system to work out without losing profit and
plastic containers finding their way in to the city drainage gain while at the same time implementing environmental
system, the resulting blockage cases inconvenience, difficult protection policies, the industry together with the big and
in maintaining the drainage with increased cost, creates small organizations that are affected must come up with
unhygienic environment resulting in health hazard and innovations especially in terms of waste segregation and
spreading of water borne diseases. This littering also product packaging. These are in line with the observation of
reduces rate of rain water percolating, resulting in lowering the group that starting to reduce the disposal costs would
of already low water levels in our cities. The soil fertility mean a decrease in the volume of waste material and by-
deteriorates as the plastic bags form part of manure remains products generated in the production process. If less waste is
in the soil for years. It has been observed that the animals generated, then less material needs to be disposed of.
eating the bags sometimes die. Plastic goes into the ocean Minimized disposal would yield to a healthier community
which is already a plastic infested body of water. Fish and for us and for the next generations. The following are just
other marine species in the water ways, misunderstanding the technological innovations that can contribute largely in
plastic garbage as food items swallow them and die. environmental protection in the industry:
Plastic pollution in the Philippines is very noticeable.
Pollution has been one of the major problems faced by the Some Technological Innovations
government. On the heart of the country, the waste coming
from plastics is the second largest contributor. The largest A. Advanced Wastewater treatment process – This method
would be kitchen waste, which also contains waste from the or innovation aims to surpass the function and
food packaging that they consume. Noticeably, Manila Bay effectiveness of the other technologies. This will
is considered one of the most polluted bays in Asia, and enhance the process more beyond just secondary
plastics comprise most of the floating litter on its surface. In treatment.
the article “Waste survey exposes extent of plastic pollution B. Improved Packaging – this pertains to the practice of
in Manila Bay”, plastics such as disposable packaging used using packaging materials that are less destructive,
in mostly in the food and beverage industry is said to be the those that are too excessive, and of course those that are
main plastic culprit in Manila Bay. The immense volume of environment friendly. One example from the
assorted plastic garbage littering its coasts and floating in its Philippines are the green bags being used by SM
currents is symbolic of the trashing of Manila Bay, and Supermalls as a substitute for plastic bags.
serves as a visual reminder of the pollution that is slowly C. Improved Sensors and Process Control- This is the use
killing the seas. of advanced techniques that will cancel out the wasted
and improve productivity.
D. Food Irradiation – Radiation most often than not give
humans very bad side effects when exposed. But in the
case of food and beverages, the radiation will cripple
the spread of unwanted pathogenic micro-organisms
that cause diseases.
E. Water and Wastewater/ reduction – This means either
the Reduction or total elimination of effluent from the
manufacturing process.
5. CONCLUSION