Earth Science News
FROTH AND BUBBLE
'Easy, convenient, cheap': how single-use plastic rules the world
'Easy, convenient, cheap': how single-use plastic rules the world
By AFP Bureaux
Bangkok (AFP) Nov 25, 2024

Each year the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of it discarded after just a few minutes of use.

Negotiators hope to reach the world's first treaty on plastic pollution this year, but across five very different countries, AFP found single-use plastic remains hugely popular as a cheap and convenient choice, illustrating the challenges ahead:

Bangkok

On a Bangkok street lined with food vendors, customers line up for Maliwan's famed traditional sweets.

Steamed layer cakes -- green with pandan leaf or blue with butterfly pea -- sit in clear plastic bags alongside rows of taro pudding in plastic boxes.

Each day, the 40-year-old business uses at least two kilos of single-use plastic.

"Plastic is easy, convenient and cheap," said 44-year-old owner Watchararas Tamrongpattarakit.

Banana leaves used to be standard, but they are increasingly expensive and hard to source.

They are also onerous to use because each one must be cleaned and checked for tears.

It "isn't practical for our pace of sales", said Watchararas.

Thailand started limiting single-use plastic before the pandemic, asking major retailers to stop handing out bags for free.

But the policy has largely fallen by the wayside, with little uptake among the country's street food vendors.

Thailand produces two million tons of plastic waste a year, according to the country's Pollution Control Department.

The World Bank estimates 11 percent goes uncollected, and is burned, disposed of on land or leaks into rivers and the ocean.

Watchararas tries to consolidate purchases into fewer bags and said some customers bring their own reusable containers and totes.

But Radeerut Sakulpongpaisal, a Maliwan customer for 30 years, said she finds plastic "convenient".

"I also understand the environmental impact," the bank worker said.

But "it's probably easier for both the shop and the customers".

Lagos

In the Obalende market at the heart of Nigeria's economic capital Lagos, emptied water sachets litter the ground.

Each day, Lisebeth Ajayi watches dozens of customers use their teeth to tear open the bags of "pure water" and drink.

"They don't have the money to buy the bottle water, that's why they do the pure water," said the 58-year-old, who sells bottles and bags of water, soap and sponges.

Two 500-millilitre sachets sell for between 50 to 250 naira (3-15 US cents), compared to 250-300 naira for a 750-ml bottle.

Since they appeared in the 1990s, water sachets have become a major pollutant across much of Africa, but they remain popular for drinking, cooking and even washing.

Some 200 firms produce the sachets in Lagos, and several hundred more recycle plastic, but supply vastly outstrips capacity in a country with few public wastebins and little environmental education.

Lagos banned single-use plastic in January, but with little impact so far.

The United Nations estimates up to 60 million water sachets are discarded across Nigeria every day.

Rio

Each day, vendors walk the sands of some of Rio de Janeiro's most beautiful beaches, lugging metal containers filled with the tea-like drink mate.

The iced beverage, infused with fruit juice, is dispensed into plastic cups for eager sun worshippers dotted along the seafront.

"Drinking mate is part of Rio de Janeiro's culture," explained Arthur Jorge da Silva, 47, as he scouted for customers.

He acknowledged the environmental impacts of his towers of plastic cups, in a country ranked the fourth-biggest producer of plastic waste in 2019.

But "it's complicated" to find affordable alternatives, he told AFP.

The tanned salesman said mate vendors on the beach had used plastic for as long as he could remember.

He pays a dollar for a tower of 20 cups and charges customers $1.80 for each drink.

Bins along Rio's beaches receive about 130 tons of waste a day, but plastic is not separated, and just three percent of Brazil's waste is recycled annually.

Evelyn Talavera, 24, said she does her best to clean up when leaving the beach.

"We have to take care of our planet, throw the garbage away, keep the environment clean."

Plastic straws have been banned in Rio's restaurants and bars since 2018, and shops are no longer required to offer free plastic bags -- though many still do.

Congress is also considering legislation that would ban all single-use plastic.

Paris

In France, single-use plastic has been banned since 2016, but while items like straws and plastic cutlery have disappeared, plastic bags remain stubbornly common.

At Paris' Aligre market, stalls are piled with fruit, vegetables and stacks of bags ready to be handed out.

Most are stamped "reusable and 100-percent recyclable", and some are described as compostable or produced from natural materials.

But experts have cast doubt on the environmental relevance of some of these claims.

Vendor Laurent Benacer gets through a 24-euro ($26) box of 2,000 bags each week.

"In Paris, everyone asks for a bag," he told AFP.

"I'd stopped, but my neighbours continued, so I had to restart."

There are alternatives like paper bags, but some customers are simply not convinced.

"Plastic bags remain practical, so everything doesn't spill everywhere," insisted 80-year-old customer Catherine Sale.

Dubai

At the Allo Beirut restaurant in Dubai, plastic containers are piled high, waiting to be filled and delivered across the city.

"We receive more than 1,200 orders a day," said delivery manager Mohammed Chanane.

"We use plastic boxes because they are more airtight, and better preserve the food," he said.

With few pedestrians and an often-scorching climate, many of Dubai's 3.7 million residents rely on delivery for everything from petrol to coffee.

Residents of the United Arab Emirates have one of the highest volumes of waste per capita in the world.

And single-use plastic accounts for 40 percent of all plastic used in the country.

Since June, single-use plastic bags and several similar items have been banned. Polystyrene containers will follow next year.

Allo Beirut is considering using cardboard containers, a move customer Youmna Asmar would welcome.

She admitted horror at the build-up of plastic in her bins after a weekend of family orders.

"I say to myself, if all of us are doing this, it's a lot."

burs/sah/sco

Related Links
Our Polluted World and Cleaning It Up

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters
Tweet

RELATED CONTENT
The following news reports may link to other Space Media Network websites.
FROTH AND BUBBLE
Delhi children struggle with online schools as court orders more smog restrictions for vehicles
New Delhi (AFP) Nov 22, 2024
Confined to her family's ramshackle shanty by the toxic smog choking India's capital, Harshita Gautam strained to hear her teacher's instructions over a cheap mobile phone borrowed from her mother. The nine-year-old is among nearly two million students in and around New Delhi told to stay home after authorities once again ordered schools to shut because of worsening air pollution. Now a weary annual ritual, keeping children at home and moving lessons online for days at a time during the peak of ... read more

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Failure haunts UN environment conferences

MapGuard enhances emergency evacuation tools across the Baltics

China zeroes in on 'common' disputes in wake of deadly attacks

Center for Catastrophe Modeling advances disaster preparedness solutions

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Enormous potential for rare Earth elements found in US coal ash

Bye bye microplastics new plastic is ocean degradable and recyclable

Amazon invests another $4 bn in AI firm Anthropic

Tunable ultrasound propagation in microscale metamaterials

FROTH AND BUBBLE
To design better water filters, MIT engineers look to manta rays

US moves to ramp up military engagements with Fiji

Extreme weather threatens Canada's hydropower future

Climate-threatened nations stage protest at COP29 over contentious deal

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Increased snowfall could preserve Patagonian glaciers with immediate emissions cuts

Political implications of Antarctic geoengineering debated

Space for Shore project tracks Svalbard glacier changes with Sentinel-1

NATO holds large Arctic exercises in Russia's backyard

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Focaccia baking in the Late Neolithic highlights complex food traditions

Spire Global partners with LatConnect60 to enhance data-driven agriculture practices

These crops dominate Germany's agricultural landscape

Scientists seek miracle pill to stop methane cow burps

FROTH AND BUBBLE
16 dead, seven missing in Indonesia flood: disaster agency

Lava covers parking lot at famed Iceland geothermal spa

Libya's Derna hosts theatre festival year after flash flood

Philippines typhoon death toll rises to 12

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Burkina freezes assets of more than 100 people over 'financing of terrorism'

How will Senegal's new leaders use their legislative landslide?

UK doubles aid to war-torn Sudan

World not listening to us, laments Kenyan climate scientist at COP29

FROTH AND BUBBLE
Dementia risk method uses machine learning for scalable and affordable care

Why the powerful are more likely to cheat

Healthy elbow room: Social distancing in ancient cities

Overthinking stems from ancient brain processes influencing modern cognition

Subscribe Free To Our Daily Newsletters




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2024 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. All articles labeled "by Staff Writers" include reports supplied to Space Media Network by industry news wires, PR agencies, corporate press officers and the like. Such articles are individually curated and edited by Space Media Network staff on the basis of the report's information value to our industry and professional readership. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Statement Our advertisers use various cookies and the like to deliver the best ad banner available at one time. All network advertising suppliers have GDPR policies (Legitimate Interest) that conform with EU regulations for data collection. By using our websites you consent to cookie based advertising. If you do not agree with this then you must stop using the websites from May 25, 2018. Privacy Statement. Additional information can be found here at About Us.