Thai zero-waste advocate Thanaboon Somboon never leaves his home without what he calls a full “weaponry” of reusable shopping bags, coffee tumblers and stainless steel straws for his daily battle against single-use plastic.
“I saw news of trash overflowing the world … sea animals dying from eating plastic … I felt I must do something,” said the 48-year-old entrepreneur, who leads an online community of more than 20,000 people seeking to practice a waste-free lifestyle.
However, individual efforts alone cannot fully stop the 8 million tonnes of plastic that make their way into the ocean each year and with four of the five worst ocean polluters in Southeast Asia, the region’s governments must take action, he said.
“Policymaking to address the issue must be treated with urgency as well,” Thanaboon said.
A summit of the leaders of the 10 members of ASEAN being hosted by Thailand this weekend is expected to adopt the Bangkok Declaration on Combating Marine Debris in ASEAN Region.
Thailand, the current chair of the group, has lauded the declaration as a “big step” for the region, whose coasts have seen whales and sea turtles wash up dead with large amounts of plastic in their stomachs.
ASEAN members Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand are among the five nations throwing the most plastic waste into oceans, according to a 2015 report coauthored by environmental campaigner Ocean Conservancy.
China is the worst offender.
“Every ASEAN country agrees that marine debris is a common problem that we must address urgently,” Thai Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment official Wijarn Simachaya said.
Unlike the EU’s central bans and targets, Wijarn said that the ASEAN declaration would outline broad ideas, but it would be up to each nation what it would take home to implement.
The declaration is to come ahead of next week’s G20 summit in Japan, which assembles 20 major economies and is also aiming to tackle marine plastic pollution.
Environmentalists welcomed ASEAN’s move to adopt the joint declaration, but there were worries that implementation would be a challenge, because the group has a code of non-interference that would leave necessary policymaking in the hands of individual member nations.
“This declaration will be a new milestone, but it will be just words on paper if there is no change in policies,” Greenpeace Thailand director Tara Buakamsri said.
He said that ASEAN nations should urgently ban single-use plastic for the declaration to be effective.
“There is no other way,” Tara said.
Of 300 million tonnes of plastic waste produced annually, 8 million tonnes end up in the oceans, it says.
According to Ocean Conservancy, 60 percent of the debris comes from China and the four ASEAN nations.
Each year, Thailand generates about 2 million tonnes of plastic waste, only about 25 percent of which gets recycled. The rest goes to incineration or landfill, where about 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes leaks into the ocean.
Environmentalists commend initiatives by some major retailers to cut back on plastic bags, but say most businesses do not take action unless there is a stricter push from policy initiatives.
Governments should “act more drastically” by introducing immediate bans on single-use plastic so that more businesses follow suit, said Nattapong Nithi-Uthai, who leads Thai volunteer network Trash Hero.
“There should be designated places for every single item to go. If things are piled up somewhere, they can leak into the ocean,” he said. “Producers should also be made responsible for taking back the single-use plastic they produce ... This might make them think twice about producing single-use packaging.”
DISASTER: The Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded a magnitude 5.7 and tremors reached as far as Kolkata, India, more than 300km away from the epicenter A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh yesterday outside the crowded capital, Dhaka, killing at least five people and injuring about a hundred, the government said. The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 10:38am near Narsingdi, Bangladesh, about 33km from Dhaka, the US Geological Survey (USGS) said. The earthquake sparked fear and chaos with many in the Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people at home on their day off. AFP reporters in Dhaka said they saw people weeping in the streets while others appeared shocked. Bangladesh Interim Leader Muhammad Yunus expressed his “deep shock and sorrow over the news of casualties in various districts.” At least five people,
It is one of the world’s most famous unsolved codes whose answer could sell for a fortune — but two US friends say they have already found the secret hidden by Kryptos. The S-shaped copper sculpture has baffled cryptography enthusiasts since its 1990 installation on the grounds of the CIA headquarters in Virginia, with three of its four messages deciphered so far. Yet K4, the final passage, has kept codebreakers scratching their heads. Sculptor Jim Sanborn, 80, has been so overwhelmed by guesses that he started charging US$50 for each response. Sanborn in August announced he would auction the 97-character solution to K4
SHOW OF FORCE: The US has held nine multilateral drills near Guam in the past four months, which Australia said was important to deter coercion in the region Five Chinese research vessels, including ships used for space and missile tracking and underwater mapping, were active in the northwest Pacific last month, as the US stepped up military exercises, data compiled by a Guam-based group shows. Rapid militarization in the northern Pacific gets insufficient attention, the Pacific Center for Island Security said, adding that it makes island populations a potential target in any great-power conflict. “If you look at the number of US and bilateral and multilateral exercises, there is a lot of activity,” Leland Bettis, the director of the group that seeks to flag regional security risks, said in an
ON THE LAM: The Brazilian Supreme Court said that the former president tried to burn his ankle monitor off as part of an attempt to orchestrate his escape from Brazil Former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro — under house arrest while he appeals a conviction for a foiled coup attempt — was taken into custody on Saturday after the Brazilian Supreme Court deemed him a high flight risk. The court said the far-right firebrand — who was sentenced to 27 years in prison over a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 elections — had attempted to disable his ankle monitor to flee. Supreme Court judge Alexandre de Moraes said Bolsonaro’s detention was a preventive measure as final appeals play out. In a video made
RSS