The tragic death of a pilot whale whose stomach was filled with plastic epitomises the magnitude of plastic pollution plaguing our ocean and marine creatures.
The exhausted pilot whale was stranded in the coastal area of Songkhla's Chana district last week before it was found and taken care of by marine officials. The care lasted five days before the mammal died. During the treatment, the whale spewed out some plastic items. Vets who performed an autopsy later pulled out a total of 85 pieces of plastic waste, weighing eight kilogrammes, from its stomach. The whale's blood had turned black due to gastric acid, indicating the unfortunate creature had swallowed many plastic items.
Paritta Wangkiat is a columnist, Bangkok Post.
The death of the pilot whale is the tip of the plastic pollution iceberg in this country and the world. A 2016 report presented by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation predicts there will be more plastic waste in the sea than fish by weight in less than about three decades if we continue on this path to destruction.
Southeast Asia is ranked the fourth among the world's top marine plastic polluters. Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand together with China produce up to 60% of the world's ocean's plastic waste, according to a 2015 report by the environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Centre for Business and Environment.
Thailand alone produces about two million tonnes of plastic waste a year, according to the Thai Pollution Control Department. Only one quarter is reused. The rest is in the hands of waste management facilities; this waste is ultimately released into the environment. The Thai Department of Marine and Coastal Resources estimates that about 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of waste end up in the ocean each year. Plastic bags account for the most at 13% of the total waste, followed by straws (10%) and plastic drink caps and food packaging (8% each). Much of the waste, as attested in the case of the pilot whale, ends up in the stomachs of marine creatures.
The figure shows that a large amount of ocean waste is generated from daily plastic consumption. A series of plastic reduction campaigns, staged by state and non-state actors including convenience stores and shopping malls, seems to have raised awareness. More consumers carry reusable water bottles and food containers.
But the problem has outpaced the efforts. Many consumers, despite their will, find it hard to accommodate an environmentally friendly lifestyle by cutting back on plastic consumption. Let me share my first-hand experience. Whenever I hand my food container to vendors, they will still try to place it in a plastic bag. They say the bag will enable me to carry the container which contains the hot food. My friends share similar experiences. Their pleas to reject straws fall on deaf ears. They say no to plastic bags, only to get more.
This addiction to convenience gives policy makers an excuse for delays in setting a zero-plastic goal. Convenience and old grocery shops as well as department stores, some with staunch PR campaigns about plastic reduction, still feel the need to provide those one-time-use plastic bags for fear of losing customers. Forget about extra charges for plastic bags for the same reason.
The Thai government said last year it might introduce a tax on plastic bags. Currently, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is working with academics to find out the appropriate tax rate. There is endless debate on the impact of those tax measures, ranging from the burden on consumers to impacts on the economy, and so on and so forth. But the hidden reason is: the plastic industry which is affiliated with powerful petrochemical firms such as IRPC and PTT Polymer Marketing that produce plastic bottles and bags from high-density polyethylene are influential and have a big say on our policy regarding plastic.
In 2017, the export values of polyethylene pellets (used to produce various types of plastic products) and plastic items were 293 billion and 137 billion baht respectively, according to the Thai Plastic Industries Association. Both plastic products accounted for 5% of the total Thai export value in the same year.
Yet, some plastic producers argue the huge amount of plastic being produced is not a problem as long as it is reused and recycled. But that is not a reality due to our addiction to convenience. Such a claim barely reflects the fact that the amount of plastic waste has already surpassed our capacity to manage it.
The death of the pilot whale is a warning. We cannot stick to a business as usual in dealing with plastic waste.