Anyone who has ever strolled along a beach is familiar with the sight … plastic straws, snack packaging, some of it dating back years, plastic bottles and other junk washed up on the sand. It's enough to spoil your vacation memories -- and it's also part of a global crisis.
Plastic pollution has been a major threat to the environment for a long time, endangering marine wildlife and biodiversity and consequently putting human health at risk.
Anywhere between 75 million and 199 million tonnes of plastic waste is currently found in the oceans, according to a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report titled From Pollution to Solution: A Global Assessment of Marine Litter and Plastic Pollution. And without progressive and meaningful action, the volume of plastic waste is projected to nearly triple by 2040.
Four Southeast Asian nations -- Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand -- plus China are responsible for more than half of the plastics leaking into the oceans, the report added.
"Most plastic waste that ends up in the ocean comes from land, washed out from poorly managed trash collection and disposal activities, sewer overflows, illegal dumpsites and littering," says Simon Baldwin, director of The Incubation Network, which supports programmes that aim to prevent plastic waste flowing into the oceans.
As well, there is the challenge of plastic that originates in the ocean from the fishing industry, aquaculture and other marine activities like sailing, cruises and maritime recreation.
The food and beverage (F&B) industry is a major contributor to ocean litter, 60% of which originates from the packaging sector, according to Mr Baldwin.
In the past two years, the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated this manmade epidemic. The way we work, eat and shop has changed in the past two years, leading to a 62% increase in plastic waste in Thailand alone -- from 2.12 million tonnes in 2019 to 3.4 million in 2020, according to the Thailand Environment Institute.
Phuket is on the frontline of the crisis as its coastal communities and local fishermen are experiencing the changing environment firsthand. The island's revenue mainly comes from tourism, with pristine beaches, azure seas and lush forests attracting millions of international visitors a year in normal times.
"Phuket is where we earn our livelihood. We rely on the environment, so it must be protected … in order to sustain Phuket's tourism," says Viroj Phutong, chairman of the Phuket Environmental Foundation.
The foundation launched Less Plastic Phuket two years ago with the support of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). The pilot project is funded by the European Union and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) under the "Rethinking Plastics – Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter" project.
Single-use plastic has been reduced through the use of the pinto, a traditional food container, and eco-friendly packaging from the TamSang-TamSong food delivery service available through the Line messaging application. Customers can enjoy responsibly packaged food and drinks from 70 participating restaurants.
The project is estimated to have reduced around 15,000 pieces of single-use plastic, and almost 3,900 kilogrammes of marine litter have been collected in clean-up projects.
"Consistent and long-term strategies to educate the public about the importance of reducing plastic pollution" are critical, says Simon Baldwin, director of The Incubation Network. SUPPLIED
RECYCLED STYLE
Finding new uses for old plastic is one of the missions of PoonSook Craft, a Phuket-based social enterprise that makes and sells products from recycled materials including fabric, wood, metal and plastic.
As the brand owner and a product designer who had worked with an international fashion brand, 40-year-old Oouu (who asked to be identified only by his nickname) knows product design from start to finish.
The company is a part of a global project called Precious Plastic started by Dave Hakkens, a Dutch industrial designer who provides open-source recycling machine blueprints to anyone who wants to start a recycling project.
PoonSook Craft has been recycling plastic litter since 2018, the year it was founded. With the help of environment-conscious partners including non-governmental organisations, private companies, fashion brands and local waste collectors, the company collects around 10,000 plastic bottle caps a month.
The number is still less than the actual consumption of plastic bottles, Mr Oouu notes.
The company has expanded its reach to other like-minded individuals beyond the island thanks to its online presence on Facebook and Instagram. As a result, he says, people are now sending in plastic caps from all over the country.
PoonSook Craft welcomes all kinds of plastic bottle caps -- no matter what colour. For other plastic packaging, it advises senders to look for the recycling symbols and number 2 (high-density polyethylene or HDPE), number 4 (low-density polyethylene or LDPE) and number 5 for polypropylene (PP). All items should be cleaned before being sent.
Plastics are shredded, melted and moulded into desired shapes. PoonSook Craft typically designs functional items such as coasters, pencil cases, or even earrings. It also makes custom orders for small businesses, schools and international organisations, such as souvenirs, keychains, trophies or other items.
One of its projects is a surfskate board, tapping into the growing popularity of the sport in Thailand. A surfskate requires 2,000 to 3,000 bottle caps depending on size and design.
"If it's for the kids (to play) -- safety and durability are the main focus", meaning more bottle caps are needed to ensure the desired quality, says Mr Oouu. If it's only for decoration, the number of caps can be reduced.
The company has also partnered with Blue Tree Phuket, an entertainment complex, to organise workshops and provide knowledge for local young people about plastic waste, the cycle of plastics they see in everyday life, and how they can manage waste at home.
"I want waste sorting and separation to become a lifestyle -- a daily routine. It has to start from reducing and reusing so there is less waste to manage at the end," Mr Oouu says.
"Phuket is where we earn our livelihood. We rely on the environment, so it must be protected … in order to sustain Phuket's tourism," says Viroj Phutong, chairman of the Phuket Environmental Foundation. SUPPLIED
CONNECTING THE REGION
The plastic problem requires collaborative work from governments and businesses across the region. The Incubation Network is a joint initiative of the Circulate Initiative and SecondMuse, whose aim is to solve ocean plastic pollution with a primary focus on South and Southeast Asia.
The network works with startups, entrepreneurs and informal waste workers as well as schools, governments and large corporations around the region to help build a regional sustainability ecosystem.
By building connections, providing support and mentorship to startups and linking the ideas to potential investors, Mr Baldwin believes stronger regional solutions can be created more quickly.
In Thailand, 11 early-stage startups working on plastic waste leakage prevention have been picked to participate in the Thailand Waste Management & Recycling Academy.
The academy provides training and workshops to gain a deeper understanding of the market and customers, along with mentorship from experts. At the end of the year, the startups will present their pitches to judges.
PoonSook Craft is one of the startups that has been selected. "The Incubation Network is a school for people who want to see a better world," says Mr Oouu.
In Indonesia, the Ocean Plastic Prevention Accelerator (OPPA) carried out the Informal Plastic Collection Innovation Challenge, with 12 startups around the world selected, says Mr Baldwin.
It's also organising the SUP Challenge by connecting entrepreneurs across the region with partners in the food and beverage industry to work with restaurants, small eateries and food delivery services to help reduce single-use plastic.
As well, it has developed the Ocean Plastics Mapping Toolkit to help people understand the flows of plastic in the value chain and identify where intervention needs to happen to create meaningful change.
Despite the growing business opportunities in the recycling and waste management industry, many investors are still hesitant because of the lack of a visible pipeline, evidence-based track record and intermediate investment products, says Rob Kaplan, the founder and CEO of Circulate Capital.
His organisation seeks to invest in local companies across the plastic value chain and show that it can create both environmental benefits and attractive financial returns.
"To unlock the capital needed and encourage investors to act, we must prove that investing in this sector is scalable and can generate competitive returns while meeting sustainability and ESG (environmental, social and governance) targets," he says.
"Extended producer responsibility says that the producers — in this case those who put single-use plastic on the market — are responsible for the end-of-life management," says Alvaro Zurita, team leader of Rethinking Plastics. SUPPLIED
MAKE IT POLICY
Thailand now has a National Plastic Waste Management Roadmap 2018-30 as a guideline to combat plastic pollution. As part of that roadmap, the National Action Plan on Marine Plastic Debris is now being developed.
At the beginning of this year, the country banned four types of plastics: plastic bags less than 36 microns in thickness, plastic foam food boxes, plastic straws, and single-use plastic cups.
Despite the effort, the country recycled just 17.6% of key plastic resins in 2018, falling short of the roadmap target of 22% for that year, the World Bank noted in a report titled Market Study for Thailand: Plastics Circularity Opportunities and Barriers.
"87% of the material value of plastics in Thailand -- approximately US$3.6 billion per year -- is lost when 2.88 million tonnes are discarded rather than recycled into valuable materials," the report adds.
One of the key structural challenges the World Bank identified in Thailand is a lack of what it calls extended producer responsibility (EPR) for industries that produce and import plastic packaging.
Other structural problems include limited local demand for recycled plastic, linear municipal waste systems that prioritise waste collection over recycling, and different fiscal incentives for the recycling industry compared to the virgin plastics industry, the report adds.
"The most challenging part about the circular economy is to change everything in our mind -- to get away from the so-called linear economy where things are produced, used and then just wasted," says Alvaro Zurita, team leader of Rethinking Plastics -- Circular Economy Solutions to Marine Litter.
The giant question -- "What will the end life of the product be?" -- must be answered from the first design phase of the product, he notes.
A circular economy embraces the "polluter pays" principle. Right now, GIZ is working closely with the Pollution Control Department of Thailand to draft guidelines for EPR, a system that is intended to put waste management on the right track.
"Extended producer responsibility says that the producers -- in this case those who put single-use plastic on the market -- are responsible for the end-of-life management," Mr Zurita notes. "It is the consensus that this is the way that it should be in principle."
However, he acknowledges that implementation is still a big challenge. It requires all stakeholders including the government, private sector and the public to be on board with a common understanding of the issues.
"It takes time," he says. "It's not that we just set up a law and in six months we have extended producer responsibility. It takes years but it's what we're doing now."
Public awareness is also important in order to drive the issues. "Consistent and long-term strategies to educate the public about the importance of reducing plastic pollution will help us protect and preserve the environment for current and future generations," says Mr Baldwin.
"It can also help empower people, increase the quality of life, launch new businesses and create the green and blue jobs needed to tackle the problem."
Phuket-based PoonSook Craft has been recycling plastic and other materials since 2018 and fashioning them into items ranging from jewellery to souvenirs and, more recently, surfskate boards. SUPPLIED
Phuket-based PoonSook Craft has been recycling plastic and other materials since 2018 and fashioning them into items ranging from jewellery to souvenirs and, more recently, surfskate boards. SUPPLIED