Working mostly from home these days, I occasionally opt for food delivery for convenience, particularly when the weather is extremely hot. I have to admit that I'm unavoidably consuming more plastic boxes and bags, and sometimes even plastic cutlery even though I have plenty of it at home.
The best I can do is avoiding to use plastic straws and reuse as many plastic bags as I can. Nonetheless, I still feel guilty because I know it will take hundreds of years for plastics to decompose in the environment. Worse, some of that waste might end up in the ocean somewhere, harming marine life.
Thailand and four other Asian countries -- the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam and China -- account for more than half of the 8 million tonnes of plastic waste dumped into the world's oceans every year, according to a 2019 report by the Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Centre for Business and Environment.
Malaysia, meanwhile, has become a leading destination for the world's plastic trash after China banned imports in 2018. It has been fighting back, returning thousands of tonnes of plastic scrap to where they are from. Just last week, it turned back a container en route from the US, saying it violated new United Nations rules governing hazardous waste.
Mismanagement of plastic waste in Asean is a continuing concern. According to a new World Bank study, less than a quarter of the plastics available for recycling in Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand are being recycled into valuable materials. More than 75% of the material value of the plastics -- the equivalent of US$6 billion per year -- is lost in the three countries when single-use plastics are discarded rather than recovered and recycled, it said.
The good news is that momentum is building among the governments of these countries to create roadmaps to strengthen demand for recycled plastic resins.
Thailand is taking the lead by setting ambitious goals to combat the economic and environmental consequences of mismanaged plastic waste. With its petrochemical industry being the largest in Southeast Asia and the 16th largest in the world, Thailand in 2018 produced 11.8 million tonnes of downstream products, including plastic resins. Its plastics industry contributed $36.9 billion or 6.7% to GDP in the same year.
But the country recycled just 17.6% of key plastic resins in 2018, falling short of the 22% target set under the National Plastic Waste Management Roadmap 2018-30.
About 87% of the material value of plastics in Thailand, or $3.6 billion per year, is lost when 2.88 million tonnes are discarded rather than recycled.
Several structural challenges have held back plastic recycling. For example, local demand is limited for recycled plastics, despite voluntary brand commitments, and municipal waste systems prioritise collection over recycling. As well, fiscal incentives for the recycling industry are different from those for the virgin plastics industry.
Many of these challenges have been amplified by the ongoing Covid pandemic. Changes in consumption patterns and low waste collection rates have led to supply reductions in the recycling industry. Low oil prices and an economic slowdown have made it cheaper to use virgin rather than recycled plastic.
In Malaysia, just 24% of key plastic resins were recycled in 2019, and the country is not on track to meet its recycling target of 40% by 2025.
In the Philippines, high dependence on single-use plastics like multilayer sachets and pouches has created a "sachet economy" that is worsening already alarming levels of marine plastic pollution. By some estimates, the Philippines consumes a staggering 163 million sachets every day.
A staggering 2.7 million tonnes of plastic waste are generated in the Philippines each year, and roughly 20% ends up in the ocean.
While barriers to recycling are unique to each country, there are common actions that governments and industries can take to unlock additional material value. These include more efficient sorting of post-consumer plastic wastes and increases recycling capacities, both mechanical and chemical.
Also effective are targets for recycled content in all major end-use applications, along with mandatory "design for recycling" standards for plastics, especially packaging. Industry-specific requirements to increase waste collection rates can also help.
On a broader scale, the private sector needs to be encouraged to embrace the circular economy. Governments can help by enacting regulations that create a level playing field for local and global companies to support state efforts.
Ultimately, proper management of plastic waste can help not only to tackle environmental problem but also to create valuable resources. There is an untapped opportunity for Asean to reap this economic benefit.