[Special Article] Everything About Plastic and Our Choice For Tomorrow 3. World’s Movement to be Plastic-free_2 (Asia, Africa, and the Middle East)

In general, we think that the environmental concern and movement start from advanced countries. The major issue of plastic waste these days is also considered the same. It sounds reasonable considering how these countries can afford financial support for proper waste treatment systems and for establishing the resource circulation system. They also provide education and campaigns to enhance community awareness for a sustainable society.

 

However, the consequence of environmental pollution is not limited to a certain area in the world and it is brought up as a global issue to be solved. This urgently led other countries to involve more actively.

 

Asia

Ever since China stopped the import of plastic waste in 2018, many other countries in the continent started their war against plastics, too. After losing a giant waste dump, advanced countries looked for areas to toss theirs and the amount of much more than one could handle. In the end, countries such as Malaysia, the Philippines, and Cambodia said no more to the imported plastic waste from outside just like China.


Africa

In fact, Africa has been implementing stringent plastic-free regulations as much as Europe and the Americas. According to the report of UNEP, 34 countries out of 54 in Africa have already started the regulation or ban the use of plastic bags as of 2018. This figure even outnumbered 29 countries in Europe.


Oceania

Australia and New Zealand apply different timing and strategies to phase out plastics in each state. Australian government especially suggested definite regulations and standards for ‘(oxo)biodegradable’ or ‘(industrial) compostable’ products. Considering there are no sufficient waste treatment facilities in the country, the government decided to exclude such products from the category of environment-friendly products and ban their use.

Middle east

While most of the industries in the Middle East is developed based on petroleum, countries also began their environmental movements against plastics. Interestingly, they rather recommend a complete ban on the products or the use of oxo-degradable plastics due to their regional condition, hot and dry deserts, rather than recyclable or biodegradable products by microbes.

One Earth! It’s everyone’s responsibility to protect it.

Among the countries introduced today, we could notice that there are a few counties that started the environmental movements even much faster than the ones in the western region. Unfortunately, however, not many of them have drawn out meaningful social and environmental changes yet.

 

It is certainly challenging for these countries to pursue and support general industrial changes due to financial difficulties, lack of waste management systems, and low participation from citizens. For example, South Africa announced that it would not sign the global treaty to resolve the plastic pollution issue on June 21st and has been getting a lot of criticism from environmental organizations since then. Yet, we also need to understand that it is difficult for them to give up the benefits of the plastic waste trade.

 

Each country and area have different awareness, environment, and conditions, but it is important to remember that we share one Earth. The environmental issues cannot be resolved by some countries’ efforts, but should be supported by collective cooperation and collaboration in waste treatment and management systems from everyone in the world. In the end, it is not ‘when an environmental movement starts’ that is important, but ‘how they are developed with practical and detailed measures’.

 

Moreover, there should be an internationally accepted standard for environment-friendly products. As the global need for such products is growing due to the plastic-free movement, many industries have been working on the research and development for materials. Each of them proudly says that they are recyclable and compostable with plausible logos and statements. However, many are considered to be greenwashing products as their environment-friendly properties have not been proven by objective and reliable test data. In order not to make everyone’s effort in vain, shouldn’t we have more definite and practical standards for environmentally friendly products and look for ways to cooperate among the global societies?

 

 

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