Date of Publication :11th December 2021
Abstract: Plastics is already an integral part of man’s daily lives. Whatever man is doing, wherever man is moving, he will use plastic. The versatility and physical properties of plastics make it superior over other materials like papers, and metal containers. The affordability and availability of plastics lead us to a throw-away culture, that results to severe plastic pollution both in grounds or in waters. In the Philippines alone, 163 million plastic sachet packets, 48 million shopping bags, and 45 million thin film bags is used daily, in which around 0.28 – 0.75 million tons/year are thrown into the ocean. Plastics cannot be totally replaced with other materials. Transporting goods contained in other containers like metals becomes too heavy, adding costs to transportation cost. In well populated cities and countries with lesser natural resources, replacing plastics with organic materials like papers poses worse environmental footprints. To mitigate the problems on plastics, there are lots of international projects and collaborations that aims to developed technologies and system that will replace fossil-based plastics with biodegradable, recyclable, bio-based plastics and create the circular economy of plastics. ASEAN partners with European Union to acquire pilot projects from the collaboration, that can be utilized in the region to answer the call on plastic waste management. But more than the industry-state-industry cooperation, every individual has big part in the waste management. Changing our lifestyle with plastics can make our world more sustainable.
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