https://cen.acs.org/materials/polymers/F...rce/96/i16
EXCERPT: . . . Some 8 million metric tons of plastic escapes into the world’s oceans each year,most of it from countries in Southeast Asia, where plastics use has outpaced waste management infrastructure. The situation is approaching catastrophic proportions. Read on to learn how governments, companies, and other organizations are focusing on the region in the hope that stopping the flow of trash there will substantially decrease plastic pollution.
“You cannot see the sand anymore because the beaches are just full of waste. And then the high tide takes the waste away,” she says. “The people there don’t have any other choice.”
The developing world is dotted with places like Muncar. The problem is particularly acute in China and in the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These five countries alone are responsible for most of the plastics that end up in the ocean. In such countries, rising affluence is allowing people to buy more plastic-wrapped food and drink than they could before. But infrastructure hasn’t kept up, leaving citizens with no environmentally sound means to throw stuff away. By developing better waste management practices, like those that already exist in wealthier places, these countries could stop the trash from escaping into the ocean.
But some observers have more drastic measures in mind. A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Timesdeclared that the “sheer volume of plastic trash now littering Earth has become impossible to ignore.” Piecemeal bans by states and cities on plastic bags and drinking straws can’t clean up the environment fast enough, the paper said. It called for phasing out all single-use plastic.
Governments in places like Indonesia and Sri Lanka have pledged to improve. The plastics industry, eager to see the problem disappear, is mobilizing with business-friendly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to develop methods for collecting, sorting, and recycling plastic trash. The parties hope they can roll out the solutions fast enough and at a large enough scale to make a difference to the ocean....
MORE: https://cen.acs.org/materials/polymers/F...rce/96/i16
EXCERPT: . . . Some 8 million metric tons of plastic escapes into the world’s oceans each year,most of it from countries in Southeast Asia, where plastics use has outpaced waste management infrastructure. The situation is approaching catastrophic proportions. Read on to learn how governments, companies, and other organizations are focusing on the region in the hope that stopping the flow of trash there will substantially decrease plastic pollution.
“You cannot see the sand anymore because the beaches are just full of waste. And then the high tide takes the waste away,” she says. “The people there don’t have any other choice.”
The developing world is dotted with places like Muncar. The problem is particularly acute in China and in the Southeast Asian countries of Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. These five countries alone are responsible for most of the plastics that end up in the ocean. In such countries, rising affluence is allowing people to buy more plastic-wrapped food and drink than they could before. But infrastructure hasn’t kept up, leaving citizens with no environmentally sound means to throw stuff away. By developing better waste management practices, like those that already exist in wealthier places, these countries could stop the trash from escaping into the ocean.
But some observers have more drastic measures in mind. A recent editorial in the Los Angeles Timesdeclared that the “sheer volume of plastic trash now littering Earth has become impossible to ignore.” Piecemeal bans by states and cities on plastic bags and drinking straws can’t clean up the environment fast enough, the paper said. It called for phasing out all single-use plastic.
Governments in places like Indonesia and Sri Lanka have pledged to improve. The plastics industry, eager to see the problem disappear, is mobilizing with business-friendly nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to develop methods for collecting, sorting, and recycling plastic trash. The parties hope they can roll out the solutions fast enough and at a large enough scale to make a difference to the ocean....
MORE: https://cen.acs.org/materials/polymers/F...rce/96/i16