To use or not to use?: Our complicated relationship with plastic

OUR relationship with plastic is complicated, to say the least. On the one hand, plastic has made our lives tremendously easier and safer – from life-saving medical equipment, to protective gear, to keeping food items fresher for longer. However, 60 years after the first piece of plastic made from fossil fuels were invented, plastic pollution has now become a global crisis.

Undoubtedly, plastic is an important component of modern life, and we cannot do away with all types of plastic products. However, necessity does not justify the harmful impacts of plastic on the planet and wildlife. Most of the plastic trash in the ocean flows from land. We face the very real threat of there being more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050. With trillions of microplastics floating around in our oceans, we may be ingesting them through the seafood we consume. Research has found that in the worst cases, people might be ingesting around a credit card’s worth of microplastic a year.

Pollution which stems from mismanaged plastic waste had reached crisis levels around the world with a multitude of associated negative ecological, economic and social impacts. Approximately 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastics are entering the ocean yearly, of which the vast majority leaks into the Indian and Pacific oceans, where many coastal-lands and countries are located. Under current trends, the volume of plastic waste will increase four times between 2010 and 2050 – meaning that, by weight, the ocean could contain more plastic than fish.

Where do we stand in this crisis? As a start, Malaysia ranked the highest among six countries in Southeast Asia in terms of annual per capita plastic packaging consumption, at 16.78 kg per person. The estimated total annual post-consumer plastic waste generation in Malaysia in 2016 at 1,070,064 tonnes, which is equal to the weight of almost 10,000 blue whales and can fill up approximately 76,500 garbage trucks! It was reported that we recycled about 24% of our plastics in 2019, an estimated 1 million tonnes per year of plastics was disposed of, and 81% of the material value of plastics is lost, leading to a plastic material value loss of USD1 to 1.1 billion per year.

One of the solutions is to prevent plastic waste from entering oceans in the first place. This could be accomplished with improved waste management and recycling systems, reducing the usage of single-use plastics, and better product design; which is addressed by the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme.

In order to manage the issue of plastic waste pollution, there should be a waste disposal management plan, which includes the recycling industry, manufacturers and the government. This is where the EPR scheme comes in, which demands greater responsibility from producers and holds them accountable for end-of-life impacts of their plastic products and packaging. Under the EPR, the responsibility of the manufacturer goes beyond waste treatment and recycling. More importantly, as a policy instrument, the scheme also encourages the adoption of a holistic eco-design in the business sector, resulting in improved product and packaging designs. All in all, producers play a greater role throughout the entire lifecycle of their products and packaging.

EPR for packaging waste has been implemented in several countries including Japan, Germany, Austria, Taiwan and others. By following a ‘polluter pay principle’, producers and importers of packaging would be charged a fee for the packaging they put into the Malaysian market based on the volume and types of packaging. The EPR fees could then provide stable sources of funds to expand collection, improve sorting and strengthen recycling infrastructure. Further, the EPR scheme can also be built upon Malaysia’s Roadmap towards Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018-2030 to reduce plastic consumption and waste.

Companies placing packaged goods on the market need to take responsibility for the full life-cycle impacts of their plastic products and packaging. However, as consumers, we too have an obligation to reduce our usage of single-use plastics. Let’s start with the simple step of refusing a plastic bag and carrying a reusable bag with us at all times. It may seem like a small step, but every time we refuse a plastic bag, that’s one less plastic waste in the environment.