Plastic pollution has been a serious, long-standing issue - unfortunately, we are Asian’s worst ocean polluters, according to World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
According to Reuters, Malaysia makes a significant contribution when it comes to plastic waste in our oceans, and research by the WWF has shown that Malaysians are the biggest individual consumers of plastic packaging.
Photo via The Star
The countries that were studied by WWF include China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam - where these countries have contributed 60% of the 8 million tonnes of plastic in the world’s ocean each year.
Globally, the volume of plastic waste going into the ocean is set to quadruple between 2010 and 2050, which means that the sea could contain more plastic by weight than fish, by the mid-century.
Malaysia was ranked the highest among the 6 countries, with a consumption of approximately 16.8kg of plastic packaging per person - and that is A LOT!
WWF’s coordinator, Thomas Schuldt said Malaysia consumed the most plastic because we were among the wealthiest and there are lots of food delivery services which are plastic packaging heavy, on top of the day-to-day products.
Malaysia’s waste is often mixed and they end up in landfills, which can be washed into rivers and seas by extreme weather.
Carrying awareness campaigns to encourage Malaysians to separate their wastes could improve recycling rates, he added.
He also urged Malaysia and other Asian governments to introduce regulation to limit single-use plastics.
Malaysians, we can do better when it comes to plastic pollution!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
