INGENIEUR
day ? Are all these plastic products engineered to pollute and kill humankind on Earth ?
Are plastics the real culprits to be blamed ? When we think thoroughly and rationally , none of the abovementioned threats would have happened if not for the attitudes of humans and the improper management of plastic waste after usage . Even worse is the habit of illegal dumping or littering on the streets . We can ’ t see that our own attitude is actually the real culprit and the root cause of all the problems that we are facing now , but we blame plastics irrationally . We blame plastics for choking the animals , we blame plastics for clogging the drains , we blame plastics filling up the landfills , we blame plastics for destroying the ocean ecosystem , and we blame plastics for the presence of microplastics in our body systems .
Let ’ s Talk about Replacements
Since plastics are seen to seriously threaten the environment and human lives , many initiatives have been taken to find replacements for plastic products . The most commonly seen initiatives include replacement of styrofoam food boxes with boxes made from polypropylene ( PP ) or plant-based fibres ; replacement of plastic straws with straws made from paper or metal ; and replacement of conventional plastic bags with bags made from so-called degradable materials . Some of the facts on replacements are uncovered as shown in Table 2 .
All the facts elaborated in Table 2 show that replacement does not necessarily help as a whole , unless everyone understand the science behind them , and actions are taken holistically from all aspects . Unfortunately , there is often a lack of detailed study and planning before a decision or policy is made to ban or to replace plastics with some other materials , and even worse , when all the facts and science are overruled by business or political wills . It is quite interesting anyway , to imagine what people will use to replace baby diapers , sanitary pads and cigarette butts when zero single-use initiatives come into force , because all these as mentioned are “ single-use ” and their quantities are enormous .
Clearing the Misleading Air
The World Wildlife Fund ( WWF ) has conducted a research and published that each Malaysian generate about 16.78kg of plastic packaging waste every year , the highest among the countries covered under the research , i . e ., Thailand , Vietnam , Indonesia , the Philippines and China . Many people were shocked by newspaper headlines such as “ Malaysians Asia ' s biggest plastic consumers ”, “ Malaysians named as Asia ' s plastic polluters ”, and few others , in announcing the report .
WWF later published a statement to clarify that those were inaccurate headlines because the study only covered six countries , and it is too much to conclude that Malaysia is the highest plastic packaging waste generator . The statement also clarified that Malaysia has in reality rather good plastic recycling initiatives , and that we also have the best waste collection rate among all the six countries researched .
Plastic waste generation per capita is correlated with the standard of living and development status of a country , which means that when a country is more developed , the per capita generation rate will be higher . Therefore , it is not surprising to see the per capita generation rate is higher in Malaysia than in the Philippines , Thailand , Indonesia , Vietnam and China . As a comparison , the plastic packaging waste generation per capita for some other more developed countries are shown below :
� European Union ( EU ) countries – on average more than 40kg / cap / year
� More than 85 % of EU countries generate more than 20kg / cap / year
� Ireland has the highest generation rate in EU at 54kg / cap / year , followed by Luxemburg ( 43kg ), Denmark ( 42kg ), Germany ( 39kg ), UK and France ( 35kg each )
� For Asian countries , Japan generates about 30kg / cap / year , Singapore is even higher at 46kg / cap / year
So , where does Malaysia stand with 16.78kg / cap / day of plastic packaging waste generation
52 VOL 87 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2021