KUALA LUMPUR: A 2019 study commissioned by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) showed that Malaysia ranks second in Asia for annual per capita plastic use.
At 16.78kg per person, Malaysians outrank much larger nations, including China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam in overall generated waste.
WWF-Malaysia today released a report addressing the need for a proper plastic waste management system to tackle the worrying issue.
According to WWF-Malaysia's lead for the sustainable markets programme Dr Adrian Choo, the report shows that the country has sufficient infrastructure to process large quantities of recycled waste materials.
"However, instead of processing and recycling waste produced in the country, a majority of the recyclers and aggregators import recyclables.
"This is attributed to the absence of systematic separation and recycling of the low-value recyclables, which include multilayer packaging and mixed plastics.
"As a result, and depending on the locally prevailing collection and disposal system, potential recycled materials end up in sanitary landfills and dumpsites, or are littered in the environment, eventually leaking into the ocean," Choo said in a statement, today.
Sixty years after the first piece of plastic made from fossil fuels was invented, plastic pollution has now become a global crisis.
Plastic pollution worldwide has reached alarming levels, causing serious consequences to marine life and the wellbeing of societies along coastlines.
Approximately 4.8 to 12.7 million tonnes of plastics are entering the ocean yearly, of which the vast majority leaks into the Indian and Pacific oceans, where many coastal-lands and countries are located.
Under current trends, the volume of plastic waste will increase four times between 2010 and 2050 – meaning that, by weight, the ocean could contain more plastic than fish.
Despite the government's revelations on the shocking figures of waste generated each year, the recycling rate of post-consumption plastic packaging among Malaysians is still relatively low, he said.
Choo said the non-governmental organisation's findings have identified an Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme as a critical and effective policy tool.
"With EPR as a policy tool, it could be used against manufacturers and hold them accountable for the end-of-life impacts of their plastic products and packaging, which will indirectly encourage the adoption of holistic eco-designs among the business sector.
"We believe that the first step is to have a mandatory scheme to provide a financial basis for large-scale systematic collection, sorting and recycling of packaging materials.
"For this customised EPR scheme to work, our findings emphasise that the responsibility of implementing the scheme to be assumed by a non-profit Producer Responsibility Organisation (PRO) as the system operator, with strict monitoring and control systems carried out by the government.
"However there is nothing unusual or new about the EPR scheme. Governments of several low and middle-income countries have started to introduce or draft regulations on EPR.
"Companies and business associations have also launched voluntary commitments and initiatives based on EPR schemes to accelerate the transition to sustainable waste management and circular economy.
"However, an effective EPR scheme must be designed and tailored to the existing waste management system and flow of recyclable materials," said Choo.
Supporting the findings, Choo said the Environment and Water Ministry (Kasa) is taking the lead in various initiatives with stakeholders along the plastic value chain to shape a circular plastics economy.
"One of the steps taken by the ministry is by building a national plastics collaboration network, which is regarded as one of the key platforms to advance the implementation of an EPR scheme.
"The EPR scheme can also be built upon Malaysia's Roadmap towards Zero Single-Use Plastics 2018-2030 to reduce plastic c
onsumption and waste, as well as a Circular Economy Roadmap for plastics.
"Ultimately, we need an EPR legal framework that outlines clear objectives, responsibilities, enforcement mechanisms, and a timeline for implementation.
"EPR complements other environmental regulations such as shifting to a circular economy, promoting eco-design, and transitioning to a more resource-efficient economy," Choo concluded.
The full published report can be found on WWF-Malaysia's website, www.wwf.org.my.