Oversea-ing Plasticsby | 18-03-2018 03:51 |
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 Human's tendency to overlook what is beyond us is reflected on how we name our planet. Three quarters of Earth is covered in waters. With its commanding vastness, we have been nonchalantly choking our oceans with soda bottles and polystyrene packages, without considering the possibility that the consequences of our actions may haunt us or even bring upon the collapse of our very own civilization. In the 1980s, the discovery of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a vortex island with at least the size of Texas and made of mostly marine detritus, first rang the alarm for the world. But the plastic epidemic did not hit the global headlines until the hunt for the missing Malaysian flight MH370 revealed that the sighted objects off the Australian coast turned out to just be flotsam trashes and plastic packages. To Malaysians and the families of missing passengers, it meant feeling in despair looking for traces of hope. The environmentalists shared the same sentiment, only with a different concern. We fear that this is only the tip of an ice berg – we are only beginning to uncover the full magnitude of the consequences of generations of people using plastics without consideration for our waters. Scientists have estimated that by now, there is 1kg of plastic for every 5kg of fishes in the sea. By 2050, there will be more plastics than fishes in the ocean by weight. Zooming the lens onto an Asian perspective, according to a research published on the Science online journal in 2015, among the Top 10 contributors of plastic waste in the ocean, ALL but 2 are in Asia. For a land mass of 330,803 km2, ranking no. 67 in size globally, Malaysia is the 8th largest contributor of ocean plastic waste, an impressive result for the wrong reason. As all of them are developing countries (with the exception of China), it is safe to assume that these middle-income countries have advanced past the stage of sheer poverty. With our growing economy, we have become too rich to worry about the need to scavenge for resources, yet too poor for a holistic national waste management system. From the disruption of the marine ecosystem to plastics returning ashore, affecting human's endocrine functions to public health concerns, the consequences of the tremendous amount of plastic waste in our waters are not to be taken lightly. Hence, the real question we must ask here is: Why, despite our small size, is Malaysia contributing to so much plastic waste in the ocean? This issue is the combination of 2 determinants: Overproduction and Mismanagement of Plastic Waste. Firstly, we overproduce plastics. With its estimated market value at $3,305.39 billion in 2017, Malaysia is the largest exporter of plastic products in Southeast Asia. For a middle-income country, sustaining such a lucrative market may be viewed essential in maintaining the integrity of our national fiscal policy and profit generation for the government. In such case, environmental concern is more often than not, regarded secondary and hence, it is easy for politicians to turn a blind eye against taking environmental considerations into policymaking and decisions on raising regulations & introducing tariffs. The power of what the society demands must also not be underestimated. With rapid urbanization and the fast pace of life, Malaysians are accustomed to the convenience that the single-use plastic bags bring. With the lack of awareness about our own carbon footprint, an instant-one-use culture is deeply ingrained in us and any well-intended environmental campaign to encourage behavioural change is likely to go unnoticed. Secondly, we mismanage our plastic waste. Beyond the boundaries of the urban setting, it is rather uncommon to see a recycling program. According to statistics from Ministry of Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government, although Malaysia produces 30,000 tons of waste per day, only 5% is recycled. Half of the trashes in Malaysia, although recyclable, never gets to be recycled and repurposed for a second use. Furthermore, recycling can be expensive. The seemingly meticulous and unrelated work of sorting and separating different types of trash incurs about 50%-60% of cost on recycling companies in Malaysia. Moreover, despite having more than 160 landfills, the fact that Malaysia ranks 8th as top ocean plastic polluter means that we have allowed a staggering amount of these trashes to escape into our waters and subsequently into the sea. It grows even more concerning in contrast, when compared to Singapore, our neighbouring ASEAN country, that has only 1 landfill yet did not make it up to the list. The issue of plastic waste in the sea is multifaceted. Hence, our solutions must also be multidimensional and capable of tackling its complexity. We must involve all stakeholders like global bodies, corporates, government, local municipalities, urban planners, scientists, society and individuals. The Malaysian government could begin by scrutinizing over the issue of overproduction by corporates, with the introduction of tight regulation on environmental impact and fines for noncompliance and plastic tax. We should also fund and support recycling companies by incentivizing those that carry out ethical procedures. In the recent ban of plastic import by China, which used to absorb more than 50% of the world plastic waste, many Southeast Asian recycling companies can benefit from this by taking the opportunity to be the main player in the global recycling sector. By integrating landfills and recycling centres, we can increase the rate of recycling in Malaysia. Moreover, many local governments have anti-plastic program. In Penang, a northern state in Malaysia, an anti-plastic bag campaign has been implemented since 2009, charging users RM0.20 for each bag they purchase. Meanwhile, in the state of Selangor, the campaign of no-plastic Saturdays initially received lukewarm response, but soon became a widely celebrated initiative particularly among the urban population, which has encouraged the local government to introduce a permanent program, similar to what the Penang government offers, since January 2017. Both states' agendas have been successful, not only in reducing plastic use, but also instilling awareness in Malaysians' mentality. We have begun to bring our own shopping bags to markets, and have realised that although often discarded after one-use, each of these plastic bags has monetary value and take resources to be produced. Up to May 2017, Selangor has collected RM1.87 million from the charge on plastic bags. As the general public progresses to be more accepting of the practice of recycling and reusing, I would like to recommend that the Malaysian government should introduce and implement mandatory household recycling program, which, with the participation of all households in Malaysia, would move us one step closer to being labelled as a developed country. Besides, Malaysia should also support more NGOs and NPOs that organize sea-related environmental activities, giving youth an opportunity to volunteer and build their confidence and career path, while increasing awareness among them. More national budget plan should also be allocated for the education sector, where syllabus should be revised, updated and redeveloped to teach children about environmental sustainability. Other simple steps like a small recycling corner in classroom and cleanup exercises can also be implemented in schools for educational purposes among children. International collaboration between governments and institutional organizations should also be encouraged to exchange knowledge and experiences from various perspective. Chinese scientists have recently discovered Aspergillus Tubingensis' ability as a plastic-eating fungus, in Pakistan. We can leverage this ground-breaking discovery and put them to good use in our landfills. More researches on biodegradable materials should also be carried out. In the past, scientists speculated that the only way to prevent plastic accumulation in the ocean is to stop our plastic waste from reaching the sea and its sources like rivers and streams. However, today, innovative ventures can help remove plastic wastes in the water streams. The Great Bubble Barrier, based in Netherlands, installs tubes under water that project air bubbles. With their upward flow, the bubbles bring submerged plastics onto the river surface for subsequent collection. Meanwhile, another venture called the SeaBin Project places numerous mobile filtering bins that remove floating plastics from the sea surface. Satellite images like Google Earth and projections from the sky like LIDAR can also help to visualise our environment by taking images that are geometrically representative of our landscapes, from above. We could utilise such technology and build a surveillance database to map the sources of plastic waste, the polluted area and its scale. Although these programs are not the magic pills for curing our plastic sea, they are necessary in helping to prevent the issue from worsening. By holding conversations with these revolutionizing projects, we can exchange knowledge and work towards the same goal of a clean sea. More funding should also be allocated for scientists and entrepreneurs to come up with new, creative and innovative ways of tackling the issue of plastics in the sea. For example, I am currently involved in a startup concept that aims to incentive the act of recycling particularly in places where recycling facilities are scarce and my teammates are 4 other scientists from different countries in Europe. Similar ventures can be considered, particularly those that focus on repurposing single-use plastics and employ surveillance data to monitor whether plastic production corporates adhere to laws and regulations. Some light-weight single-use plastics can be useful particularly during disasters to build temporary shelter as well as a short-term floating transport system on floodwater for aid delivery during flooding seasons in Malaysia. Their buoyant property can also be utilized to build floating islands to improve the quality of water and maintain the ecosystem in rivers and lakes here. Rome was not built in a day. Neither is our sea of plastic soup. With decades of mismanagement and oversight, we have abused our oceans, assuming that it would hold whatever we throw in. Today, with plastics drowning the sea animals, our turtles are tangled and our birds are starved. With fishes ingesting microplastics, these substances may one day well be served on our dinner plate. We must start to rethink our relationship with plastics by educating ourselves and our children that despite its sheer size, our oceans are just as exhaustible as we are. Despite such ignorance and repeated abuse, the Mother Earth will survive this disaster just like how it went through ice age and volcanoes. But humans will not. Like the hunt for the missing flight, if we do not take immediate action to rid our waters of plastics, the only thing we could cling on to for the future of our children may just be a glimpse of fading hope. Update: Hello everyone! Thank you for reading my report. Hope you have learned a thing or 2. If you have any suggestion, question or criticism, please do not hesitate to comment below so I could learn too :) I am writing an update for 2 purposes to add in some relevant references and links. Enjoy reading! Top Ocean Plastic Polluters - Infographics on Ocean Plastics - Great Bubble Barrier (Netherlands) - Money Issue around Recycling - Plastic Ocean - Fungus that Breaks Down Plastic Discovery - Seabin Project - |
