Tina Feng posted: " By Tina Feng. The US is exploiting developing countries where there is no regulatory framework to ensure plastic waste is processed in an environmentally friendly way.McVeign, 2018 Exploit. This word stood out the moment I scanned the report. "
The US is exploiting developing countries where there is no regulatory framework to ensure plastic waste is processed in an environmentally friendly way.
McVeign, 2018
Exploit. This word stood out the moment I scanned the report. This was precisely how I felt about the situation where Southeast Asian countries struggle to process the plastic waste coming from major western countries like the US.
Plastic pollution has been a topic of climate change for decades, and every year Asia has also been blamed for producing the most plastic waste. Based on the report conducted by United Nations, about 1.15 and 2.41 million tonnes of plastic currently flows from the global riverine system into the oceans every year. And About 15 of the top 20 polluting rivers are located in Asia. However, while it is true that Asia is accountable for such destructive plastic pollution, it doesn't mean that they are necessarily the ones who produce the trash. For example, in December 2018, 49 million kg of plastics were shipped from the U.S. to Southeast Asian countries. However, on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) record, the moment the trash is exported, it is considered "recycled". Therefore, the U.S. will no longer trace the actual recycling process or the result of the waste it has produced. To make it clear, the plastic waste produced and used on the land of America disappeared the moment it was shipped. It immediately became the heavy environmental burden that Southeast Asian countries now must take on. In 2018, U.S. exports of plastic waste to Malaysia rose by 273%, to 157,299 metric tonnes, while those to Vietnam rose by 46%, to 71,220 tonnes.
So what happens when plastic trash arrives in Southeast Asia countries? According to the report by Plastic Pollution Coalition in 2019, when plastic waste arrives in these developing countries such as Vietnam, it is not handled by any state-owned or regulated factory, but instead, it is sent or sold to "craft villages". In these "craft villages", the trash is sorted and informally processed by individuals on household scales. To make it clear, the government provides no guidelines on how to "recycle" the trash and under most circumstances, the unofficial standard procedure is that the workers will first wash/clean it and then burn it. This process requires a lot of water and produces a lot of smoke. Besides this, the water used to clean the trash is usually directly discharged into the waterways, resulting in water pollution. At the same time, the burning process produces harmful chemicals in the air that could cause health issues to those who live in the nearby areas. And in those villages, the boundless mounting trash heaps constitutes the reality that people face every day.
As mentioned above, the informal processing of plastic waste is detrimental to both the environment and human health. A study has shown that plastic waste exports to south-east Asia have also contaminated the food chain with high levels of toxins and hazardous chemicals that could result in many illnesses cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, and endometriosis. In addition to this, the burning of plastics and their repulsive smell are daunting and harmful since they could cause respiratory problems. The odour usually permeates the air and could remain for more than two months, and the people who live in the Philippines' plastic city has told reporters that the odour of burning wakes them up at night.
"State of Plastics Waste in Asia and the Pacific- Issues, Challenges and Circular Economic Opportunities." UNITED NATIONS CENTRE FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, 7 Dec. 2020.
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