5 Asian Countries Dump More Plastic In The Ocean Than The Rest Of The Planet

The giant populations living in the vast Asian cities have already been creating pressure on their local ecosystems. But the rivers have become an exceptionally significant concern now. Indonesia is home to the river with the most pollution on the planet, the Citarum River. 

Unfortunately, though, this is not one singular incidence of river pollution in the Asian continent. Vietnam, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, and China dump more waste plastic into our oceans than all other countries in our planet combine and this for sure must stultify all of us and provoke collective outrage.

Plastic chokes aquatic life and seabirds. It ends up in our food in the form of Microplastics that ocean critters end up consuming. It also takes several decades to decompose. Thankfully though, there is still hope, all we need to do is cut down on our plastic consumption. Here are some steps that can be taken for the same:

Drink Filtered Water Instead of Bottled

Plastic water bottles are a sign of wealth and status in Asia since it is considered that bottled water is safer than filtered water. As per Green Earth, the city of Hong Kong consumes about 5.1 million plastic bottles of water every single day.

Sustainable Food Delivery

Starting from street food vendors to the food-delivery places in Vietnam or Thailand, eating out is not a green affair by any means. Especially due to the alarming number of plastic tools which are used.

It is estimated that plastic in the ocean is going to outweigh fish by 2050, as per Li.

Refuse To Use Plastic Bags

The 1.66 million tons of household waste that Singapore produced last year was mostly packaging waste. It consisted of mainly food packaging and plastic bags. The vast volume of the waste can fill up above a thousand Olympic-size pools, as per News Asia. Plastics are certainly convenient on our end and cost very little money. 

Volunteer Into The Anti-Plastic Movement

While it is not the most glitzy means of spending a day, it is an immensely meaningful initiative – volunteering for a beach cleaning drive. The One Island One Voice initiative gathered the efforts of more than 20,000 individuals to clean 120 shores in Indonesia’s Bali. 

The journey is a long one, but it is definitely seeing meaningful initiatives take place. The Indonesian State has set a target of making the Citarum River water drinkable in the next 7 years.