Global anxiety over the impact of plastic waste has reached new heights since images emerged of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and, more recently, the sad tale of a pilot whale found dead in Thailand with eight kilogrammes of trash in its stomach.
A forecast that the oceans will contain more plastic than fish by 2050, and concern that toxicity from plastics and microplastics is showing up in the food we eat, underscore the urgent need to curb appalling environmental problems.
Many consumers are starting to reduce their own plastic consumption, but that is just a tiny tip of the iceberg, so to speak -- 46% of the plastic trash in the sea by weight consists of discarded fishing nets. What is really needed is a more holistic view of the entire value chain of plastic production and consumption, from waste collection and management to public awareness.
This holistic approach has proved to be a success for Sweden, where over 99% of all household wastes are recycled one way or another. But it didn't happen overnight.
Efforts to manage waste in a proper way started more than a century ago, with the establishment of the country's first incineration plant in 1904, according to Avfall Sverige, the Swedish waste management and recycling association.
And even though Sweden incinerates three times more waste today at 32 plants than it did in 1985, it has also managed to reduce heavy metal emissions by 99% over the same period.
"For centuries, nature and forest have been very close to the hearts of Swedes. At the same time, around the beginning of the 20th century, we realised that we were destroying our forest. As nature was a part of our heritage, we were actually destroying ourselves," Ambassador Staffan Herrström told Asia Focus.
He attributes high environmental awareness to the Swedish concept of allemans rätten. It means that everybody has the right to be on public and private property for recreational purposes and that instills a sense of responsibility for nature among all citizens.
"This right to access nature is firmly entrenched in the conscience of all Swedes and family activities in the outdoors became very common," he said.
But as the country became wealthier, consumption rose and so did pollution. "In the 1960s when I was growing up, civil society engagement for a clean environment had already started to develop," said Mr Herrström.
He still remembers the early "Keep Sweden Tidy" movement, which was a combination of environmental education, community participation and incentives for best practices for responsible behaviour.
In Sweden today, citizen participation and responsibility for waste management is very high. Waste segregation and recycling is a normal practice in every household.
"In Sweden today, less than 1% of household trash ends up in landfills," said the ambassador. "This is due to the combination of waste disposal technology as well as the attempt to reuse and recycle as much as possible.
Photo: Korawut Neeparn
"You need to have a combination of many measures: government intervention, the right legislation, enforcement of a mandatory deposit system for recycling, and then you need to encourage people to take responsibility.
"There have to be the right treatment facilities for different types of waste and assurances that citizens are aware of which waste should go where."
Swedish law states that there must be a recycling station no more than 300 metres from any residential area where households can separate waste such as newspapers, plastic, metal and glass for recycling, and also safely dispose of electric appliances, light bulbs and other hazardous waste.
KEEPING ASIA TIDY
In Mr Herrström's view, the challenge in Asia is not only to reduce production and use of plastics but also to adopt better waste management systems with participation from everyone, from governments to businesses and individual consumers.
"There is a huge need to improve the waste management system in Asia. Not only collection, but we also need to work upstream in the value chain to prevent the plastic from ending up in nature," he said.
Many countries can share knowledge on better waste management systems and practices within a circular economy.
"Environmental protection is not necessarily something that comes with wealth and development. It is a matter of understanding the importance of the natural world, enforcement and self-discipline," said Mr Herrström. "Developing countries are starting to realise that the amazing asset of their countries is that nature is not yet degraded, and it's an asset they must keep."
In his view, emerging economies need to maintain a solid basis for economic growth while also preserving the environment for future generations and healthy socio-economic development. The warning signs of unsustainability are already clear.
"The situation in the oceans is now very visible," said Mr Herrström. "The damage has been done over a very short period of time. The problem is more acute than we think. This is not going to be sustainable for our children and grandchildren.
"But the good news is that it is possible to combine economic growth with environmental responsibility. This is an unavoidable relationship."
The Swedish Embassy is now looking at how it can support a programme to reduce marine litter by addressing the management of the plastic value chain in Southeast Asia. The effort is being led by the UN Environment Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and the Coordinating Body on the Seas of East Asia (Cobsea) Secretariat. The aim is to reduce the adverse impact of marine litter from plastic leakage by ensuring that less plastic enters solid waste streams.
Success, the participants say, will depend on creating "the right incentives for the private sector to act and address the problem upstream".
A recent report on by UN Environment suggested a ban or levies on single-use plastics as a step toward more comprehensive policies. Progressive introduction of voluntary reduction strategies could gradually allow people to begin changing consumption patterns to reduce plastic pollution.
Louise Hermann, the first secretary of the Swedish embassy and senior programme manager for environment and climate change, said that while raising awareness is very important, authorities need to ensure proper waste management systems are in place.
"If you don't have the system in place in terms of waste collection, separation and recycling and you go out with a huge awareness-raising campaign, there is a risk that waste management is not taken seriously by the public," she said.
"In this region, an effective system for recycling is not yet in place. If the system is not in place, people will not think it matters whether they separate or recycle their waste. If people do not believe that the waste management system works, then they will lose faith in the system."