SEA OF CHANGE
The other day, I was walking in the park near my house when I saw this plastic bag, puffed up and blown along by the wind, crossing my path. It reminded me of that famous scene in American Beauty, where teenager Jane Burnham and boy-next-door Ricky Fitts watch a video that Ricky captured of a discarded plastic bag dancing in the wind.
“[It’s] the most beautiful thing that I have ever filmed,” says Ricky, who then compares the bag to a little kid begging him to play with it for 15 minutes. A plaintive piano score adds to the sad eeriness of the scene.
“Sometimes, there’s so much beauty in the world — I feel like I can’t take it, like my heart is just going to cave in,” he says at the end.
It’s poetic and moving. But today, it’s hard to see anything beautiful in plastic bags. This is rubbish, strewn about our parks and streets, and whirling underwater, clogging up the seas.
In 2018, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) embarked on a campaign to raise awareness that our planet is drowning in plastic pollution. It estimated that if we continue at the rate we are going, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050.
That same year, the slogan for World Environment Day was “Beat Plastic Pollution”. That was on June 5. Four days beforehand, a pilot whale died after having drifted into a canal in Songkhla. The poor creature spat out five plastic bags; an autopsy later revealed that there were 80 more in its stomach.
The tragedy highlighted Thailand’s problems with plastic pollution and waste management. UNEP had already pointed the finger at just five countries who contributed to around half of the plastic waste in the world’s oceans: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.
In August of last year, the loss of orphaned dugong Mariam reminded us of the seriousness of the plastic crisis. As with the pilot whale, Mariam died because of plastic debris causing intestinal obstruction and gas build-up in her digestive system.
And while they may not have made the same headlines as the pilot whale and Mariam, there have been many other creatures in seas, rivers and lakes fishes who have died because they have mistaken plastic for food.
Further up the food chain, there’s a good chance we’re ingesting plastic particles through the seafood we’re eating.
A lot of people are still unaware of the consequences of dumping plastic bags, bottles, cap seals, cups, straws and food containers. Even when disposed of properly, a huge amount of plastic waste finds its way into our waterways and seas.
Packaging is a big part of the problem. In November last year, UNEP published the report “The Role Of Packaging Regulations And Standards In Driving the Circular Economy”, which focuses on policy intervention and enforcement in addressing packaging waste, particularly from plastic packaging, in Asean nations.
With four of the world’s five worst plastic polluters from this region, Southeast Asia needs to be the front line in the fight to save the marine environment.
Sadly, policies on packaging waste and standards in the region lag behind. Thailand only introduced a ban on single-use plastic bags in January. The implementation at this stage only covers department stores, convenience stores and supermarkets (not all of whom are being fully compliant, according to reports).
Other countries have long been addressing plastic pollution through bans or taxes. Ireland, for instance, introduced an environmental levy on plastic bags in 2002, in order to discourage consumption and reduce the environmental impact on its landscape.
To encourage more sustainable behaviour, new environmental levies announced in November last year will include an increase in the existing plastic bag tax and a crackdown on disposable coffee and tea cups. From 2022, the second and third phase of levies in Ireland will focus on takeaway food containers and food packaging in retail outlets, respectively.
In Thailand, disposable plastic cups are a major problem all on their own. Though some coffee shops encourage customers to bring their own reusable cups by offering discounts, many people on-the-go continue to use a plastic cup or two each day.
Moreover, food delivery services, highlighting convenience over conscientiousness, will happily place foods and beverages in plastic boxes and cups, which in turn will be placed in plastic bags.
We have become used to this level of convenience. But it comes at a terrible cost to the environment. We need to have an understanding of where all this plastic packaging is going to end up. We need to get into the habit of giving up some convenience for the sake of the environment. Cutting or eliminating consumption will help our oceans to breathe again.
In Ireland, new environmental levies will increase the plastic bag tax and crack down on disposable coffee cups