Zero to Plastic Pollution

Prepared by Amalina Ismail, Farah Ainun, Shahmi Nordin, Haziq Fauzi

Plastic is everywhere and plastic bag is the modern amenities in this era. Plastic has two
types which is good plastic and bad plastic. Good plastic is a biodegradable plastic because
biodegradable plastic is made from plant-based material such corn and wheat starch as that
does not contain any chemical fillers. Biodegradable plastic also can break down fungi or
bacteria. The price of biodegradble plastic a bit expensive more than other plastic bags.
Manufacturing biodegradable plastics will get cheaper as demand increases, say government
and industry players, (Shahlini Ravindran, 2019). Next, three type of bad plastic which are
single use, unrecyclable and not-recycled. Most of us prefer to use those bad plastic bags in
their daily life because bad plastic is cheaper and light than good plastic. Although most
shopping areas already impose a charge of 20 cents per plastic bag, there are still many people
who buy a plastic bag when shopping and do not replace it with a reusable bag. Paper bags and
cotton tote bags are more environmentally unfriendly than plastic bags. Plastic pollution is a
global problem that must be addressed in the right manner and comply with the law. Less
awareness is also one of the causes of plastic pollution. Therefore, to align with the law and to
create awareness in people is by applying environmental subject in each every university and
schools with compulsary. Nowadays we can see some people thrown away the bottle cups and
plastic bags in the drain and causing clogged drain without feel any guilt. For example, for past
few months that happened floods in Taman Sentosa, Klang, causing clogged drains. Due to the
silt, single-use plastic bags and plastic bottles, the 750m stretch monsoon drain overflows
during heavy rain and water rises up to about 0.35m on the main road, Jalan Yusof Shahbudin
3, (Metro News, 2019). Zero plastic pollution can be achieved through implementation fines
on food and beverages industry, encouraging biodegradable plastic manufacturing and
empowering environment education.

Plastics are materials that we use them every day and almost everywhere. Unfortunately,
the problem is how to manage this material after them have been used. A better waste
manangement system by facilitating higher waste collection and recycling rates, would allow
waste plastics to be captured before they begin creating problems in the natural environment.
Our cities need consistent collection service to giving a proper hygienic facilities and good
maintenance. Our people also do not know how to manage the waste that actually its starts
from individual levels. They have to do recycle on these materials when they used it. They also
have to aware about waste management and to keep clean and healthy. Low public awareness
and lack of information can cause uncontrolled disposal and can make plastics vulnerable to
pollution of the surrounding.But by recycling these material would effect the standard and
quantity in hygienic.Some of the countries like India have the critical issue on how their
managed their waste management.The wastes can be seen anywhere in the country due to poor
waste management.According to Dr Kumar in article ‘ The Crisis of Waste Management in
India’ by United Nation University (Dr Kumar,2017) As the largest research and development
organisation in India,they were faces various obstacle to its development. We desperately need
to support the development and have awareness of proper waste management in developing
countries.

The plastics pollution issue now is getting more serious from time to time in this country.
The solutions should have been taken to slow down this issue to avoid more harmful causes to
our nature and to our people. Firstly, to take an action on this pollution issue the government
body like Health and Environment Department should take role in this part by enforcing the
food and beverages industries to switch using another alternative of packaging instead of
normal plastic bags and put a penalty charge on them if they still hesitate not to change to
another safe packaging. This concept is similarly to the situation that government applied to
the smoker that smokes in any food premises. Those who smoke in any food premises will be
fined for certain amounts. The Health and Environment Department should apply this method
to the food and beverages industries for them to stop using the normal plastic bags and start to
use another alternative for food and beverages packaging like edible food wrapper. An edible
food wrapper can replace large numbers of plastic packaging. Another thing that useful by
using this edible food wrappers is it can prevent the food from spoiling by blocking the oxygen.
In addition, the food wrappers are clear and transparent so you can see what the thing you are
buying. These types of packaging somehow can eliminate concerns about harmful chemical
leaching from plastic bags to the food. The Malaysians Plastics Forum (MPF) claims that the
food wrappers are safe to use to hold or wrap hot foodstuff even in boiling water and the
material can withstand heat up to 120°C (Loh Foon Fong, 2017). In summary, the usage of the
plastic can be decrease when the consumers start to switch to use a food wrapper as another
alternative to wrap the food. Practically, the useful of both plastic bags and food wrappers are
similar which to wrap the food but the outcome and cause is differ where a plastic bag can lead
to a plastic pollution.

The less number of manufacturer that produce biodegradable plastic, bio plastic and
compostable plastic in Malaysia actually is one of the reason why everyone keeps using a
plastic bags as their first choice. By increasing the number of manufacturer that produces these
safe plastics somehow can converse their choice from choosing a normal plastic bag switching
to a biodegradable plastic bag. Currently, the consumers still choosing a normal plastic in their
daily basis because of the price for normal plastic is cheaper than a biodegradable plastic.
However, these manufacturers are still reluctant to produce biodegradable plastic due to the
less demand of biodegradable plastic. Thus, by increasing the demands of these biodegradable
plastics to the manufacturer, it will increase the amount number of manufacturer to produce
these safe plastics. As the number of manufacturer increase the price for these biodegradable
plastic will become competitive and the price will go down when more people are using these
products. Back to three years ago, the price for a biodegradable plastic bag is 35 cents per piece.
As the demand has increased, the price has dropped down to 20 cents per piece now (Shalini
Ravindran, 2019). In conclusion, by increasing the number of demands and the number of
biodegradable plastic bags’ manufacturer will increase the chances to get more people use a
biodegradable plastic bag rather than a normal plastic bag.

By giving education to people on including the environmental subject in every

university or school by compulsory are the next solution of plastic pollution. Environmental
subject is related to the environmental education on giving extra information and understanding
to the individuals in saving the environment. In the subject individuals can explore and research
the environmental information and issues, finding the environmental problem and make best
solution to improve the environment issues. In including the environmental education in
universities’ course and make it as a compulsory subject, it also will increases the awareness
and the knowledge of the students on how to keep the earth safe and how bad the pollution
effects the earth. As for an example, in Japan school has been introduce the Environmental
Education (EE) as a compulsory subject for all the students. The school textbooks, in certain
subject at all levels have been revised to intergrate environmental concepts. Besides that classes
of Life-Environmental Studies during class period have been implemented based on Teacher`s
Guide for Environmental Education in school(Toshiya Kodama, 2000). In this case, individual
will provide a deeper understanding on environmental issues and have the skills to make some
positive action and decisions on maintaining the environment. As a result, it will play a
significant role in environment protection by educating people about the need to conserve and
manage natural resources and the information that about the environment issues can be useful
in life.
 In conclusion, while plastic pollution is a very serious problem, zero plastic pollution
can be achieved through implementation fines on food and beverages industry, encouraging
biodegradable plastic manufacturing and empowering environment education. Besides that, the
government should enforce the supplier and the consumer to use more biodegradable plastic
rather than using a normal plastic. They need to manage and monitor the procedure and job
done by the contractor to collect the waste and how they composed it. Although plastic
pollution cannot fully be avoided but this issues can be prevent by the best solution and action
to achieved “Zero Plastic Pollution”.
 References and notes

1.EMF (2017), Rethinking the future of plastics and catalysing action,

https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/NPEC
Hybrid_English_22-11-17_Digital.pdf.

2. These include low density polyethylene (LDPE), high density polyethylene (HDPE),
polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), polyvinyl chloride
(PVC), polyurethane (PUR), and polyester, polyamide, and acrylic (PPA) fibres. Past
experience with large-scale production of bio-fuels has shown that this leads to land-cover
change on a significant scale. Ellen MacArthur Foundation (2017), The New Plastics
Economy, Rethinking the Future of Plastics and Catalysing Action,
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/assets/downloads/publications/NPECHybrid_Engl
ish_22-11-17_Digital.pdf

3. Jambeck, J. et al. (2015), “Marine pollution. Plastic waste inputs from land into the
ocean.”, Science (New York, N.Y.), Vol. 347/6223, pp. 768-71,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1260352.
4. The authors define mismanaged plastics waste as those that arise through littering or
dumping in low quality landfill or open dump sites.

5. Ingestion of plastics, or entanglement in them, has been documented in around 500 species
of marine mammals, fish, and seabirds, with clear negative consequences for marine
ecosystems and the fishing industry. See UNEP (2016), “Marine Debris: Understanding,
Preventing And Mitigating The Significant Adverse Impacts On Marine And Coastal
Biodiversity”, https://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/cbd-ts-83-en.pdf

6. “The Crisis Waste India” https://www.bioenergyconsult.com/tag/waste-crisis-in-india/

https://books.google.com.my/books?id=YAMcLLLHKw8C&pg=PA65&lpg=PA65&dq=the+crisis+waste
+in+india+dr+kumar&source=bl&ots=MNcEbBQX4f&sig=ACfU3U0M6d6Hub5BPZTxbWQ3JVzvhTc4zg
&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjKnJP3mYbkAhXBNI8KHQ0dApYQ6AEwEXoECAkQAQ#v=onepage&q=th
e%20crisis%20waste%20in%20india%20dr%20kumar&f=false