Global voyage to spread message on threat of plastic pollution
IMAGINE going on a five-year voyage around the world just to spread a message on the threat of plastic pollution.
That is exactly the commendable step taken by the Race For Water Foundation
– they are now on their second odyssey, which has since taken them to Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Solomon Islands, Indonesia and many more countries.
Their vessel arrived in Kota Kinabalu on August 20 for a 20-day-stopover and they are intending to create as much awareness as they can on the dangers of plastic pollution.
Media representatives as well as some state leaders were invited to make a special tour of the vessel, which is completely powered by renewable energy.
The 100-tonne and 114-footlong vessel relies solely on the sun, wind and hydrogen to sustain itself.
Marco Simeoni, a Swiss entrepreneur who is very passionate about the sea, initiated the Race For Water in 2010 as he wanted to create an organisation that is dedicated to the preservation of water – and in particular the oceans.
He said that the main goal for the foundation is to fight against plastic pollution and to propose a solution.
It is understood that the vessel started its journey in April 2017 from Lorient, France.
Project manager Camille Rollin said the organisation was one of the first ones to speak up on the dangers of plastic pollution way back in 2010 when the issue was not yet widely talked about.
A study revealed that ‘plastic islands’ do not exist – only one to three per cent of plastics remain on the surface.
Her team found out that humans are actually facing a veritable soup of toxic micro plastics with catastrophic effects on the marine and the entire food chain.
“Our 2015 global assessment of plastic pollution allows us to state that there is no plastic island but a soup of micro particles floating in the five gyres,” said Camille.
She said that only one to three per cent of plastics would actually remain on the surface.
Camille said the Race For Water Odyssey team carries out their prorgramme in three parts, namely to learn, to share and to act.
The Race For Water wants to contribute to the advancement of scientific knowledge on plastic pollution in water; to alert decision-makers, raise awareness and educate; and to promote and implement sustainable solutions.
Marco pointed out that we create over 400 million tonnes of plastic each year and that we are only able to recycle about 10 to 15 per cent.
He opined that the people must change the way they process plastics – it has to be created in such a way that is more sustainable.
“This will take time. It may take 10 to 15 years before we can change that,” he said.
He added that plastic waste should not just be thrown to the landfill as it has a lot of potential and that it can even be transformed to energy.
Initially, the Race For Water Vessel was not even scheduled to stop by Sabah. However, that all changed due to the efforts made by the founder of No More Plastics in Our Water (NOW), Marinah Harris Embiricos.
She was adamant in bringing the vessel to Sabah as she wants Sabahans to be learn how the extent of danger that plastic waste brings – as a result, she managed to convince Marco to stop by the ‘Land Below The Wind’.
“It’s not just a Sabah challenge, it’s a global challenges.
“Just to put it briefly – the ocean makes up 79 per cent of earth, 50 percent of nutrition comes from the ocean and 97 per cent of our water comes from the ocean,” said Marinah.
“Everybody carries plastic. It is such a versatile product. How can you live without plastic?” she further asked.
She said that beach clean-up would not solve the problem and that the communities would only end up doing it again and again, to no avail.
Thus, she opined that the best way to tackle this problem is by coming up with a more sustainable solution.
“What we need to do is to stop the issue of plastic waste at source. What we want to do now is for us to change our behavior – and this will take time. Also, at the same time, we must find a solution.
“We have to turn plastic into a valuable product,” stressed Marinah.
NOW has come up with an innovative way to prevent the spread of plastic waste into the ocean with its Smart Recycling Centre technology.
It is a new method of directly recycling and upcycling waste to multi-use products – it turns old plastic waste into new reusable plastic products – thus creating a value chain for end-of-life plastic.
“NOW is a platform; not an NGO. We welcome any institution – be it a corporate or private one, schools, NGOs and so on. We work with everyone.
“This (the collaboration) is a complementary mission, that we have with Race for Water,” said Marinah.
Meanwhile, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Liew Vui Keong, who was the guest of honour at the event, said that the Federal Government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is very serious about putting a stop to plastic pollution.
He pointed out that the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (Mestecc) had banned the use of single-use plastics in the country.
“We (the Federal Government) had been very sentimental about this issue. We wanted to ensure that single-use plastics would be banned,” said Liew.
“I myself do not use plastic straws. Indeed, I have impressed upon all my family members and officers about the negative impact caused by single-use plastic straws. There are other alternatives such as bamboo, metal and paper straw that we can use.
“Plastic pollution affects all of us, in every region,” added Liew.
In a separate statement, Mestecc had expressed its support for Race For Water and it believed that the initiative would further augment the much-needed public awareness on addressing single-use plastic pollution.
It also believes that the odyssey’s innovative renewable energy usage of sun, wind and water to power her global journey would inspire more local innovations on renewable energy – especially among the younger generations – to develop and assimilate the use of sustainable technology for a better and sustainable future.