Southeast Asia faces a severe environmental crisis as imported plastic waste accumulates across its beaches and towns, disrupting local ecosystems and communities.
Key points:
- Southeast Asia, already the world’s largest contributor to oceanic plastic, receives even more waste from developed regions.
- The problem lies in international waste management regulations, compounded by regional corruption and lax enforcement.
- Despite challenges, some communities and governments are mobilizing with grassroots clean-up efforts and legislative actions, such as potential bans on such imports.
How bad it is: Southeast Asian countries received 17% of the world’s plastic waste imports between 2017 and 2021, according to the United Nations. The region, however, has only about 9% of the world’s population.
- China, once the world’s largest importer of plastic waste, banned the practice with most plastics and other recyclable materials in 2018, drastically altering the global waste trade dynamics. This policy shift redirected much of the world’s plastic to Southeast Asia.
- The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand were also among the world’s top 10 contributors to oceanic plastic pollution in 2021, accounting for more than half the global total.
What this means: The escalating amount of plastic waste not only mars the region’s natural beauty — it also poses significant health and environmental risks. As it affects marine life, the debris also endangers local economies, particularly fishing and tourism.
Who’s causing it: Developed jurisdictions such as the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and the European Union all export plastic waste to the region. However, other ASEAN countries — notably Thailand and Singapore — also do.
- Despite the Basel Convention, which is meant to regulate the international movement of hazardous wastes, enforcement is lax, and corruption allows illegal shipments to slip through. This practice is known as…
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