A POPULAR proverb says that 'a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.' In this sense, we have taken many steps toward moving away from our plastic-filled legacy, from banning single-use plastics such as straws in some cities to encouraging the use of recyclable materials by the private sector. Our journey, however, has just started.

Plastics, in a way, are ingrained in our culture; instead of bottles of shampoo, most of the population often opts for single-use sachets. Beverages served in sari-sari stores are often consumed from plastic bags and sipped through plastic straws. Can we blame consumers for the plastic crisis when we have built such a reliance on the ubiquitous material? Just as the problem has no singular cause, there is no single solution to undoing our plastic legacy. We must take a holistic approach with responsibility and accountability at its core.