Brilio.net/en - With between 10 to 30 billion tons (yes, billion) of plastic floating around the ocean, it has us wondering who are the culprits. The Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment conducted a report to analyze the situation and find the main culprits.
Turns out that only 5 countries make up the majority of ocean pollution. It may not come as a shock to you (especially if youve been to Bali) but Indonesia is listed along with four other countries as the top five countries that account for 60% of the ocean pollution worldwide. The other countries include: China, the Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand.
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It should be noted that Indonesia is one of the most populated nations on the planet and an island archipelago, two factors which virtually set it up to become an ocean polluter.
Additionally, the boom in Asian economies has people spending more money, especially for the ill-packaged products such as cigarettes and bottles. But the economies havent reached the strength of their Western counterparts, which companies have noticed. In turn, the companies in Asia are often producing one-use items that are quickly piling up, such as the Indonesian favourite Pop Mie cups and one-time use shampoo packets. The result is that a lot more plastic is being used in for packaging.
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Image viaquotesgram.com
Though corporations arent making plastic with the intent of it ending up in the ocean, they should be offering up their world-class logistics, financing, project management and marketing capabilities to help solve he problem, said Nicholas Mallos, director of the Ocean Conservancys marine debris program.
According to the report, if change doesnt start to happen soon, we could expect to find one ton of plastic for every three tons of fish in the oceans by 2025. Even worse is that only 5% of the plastic ends up floating across the ocean. The remaining plastic gets stuck submerged underwater, slowly wrecking aquatic ecosystems. Snorkeling for sunken man-made plastic doesnt quite sound like the ideal vacation adventure.
The take-away? Recycle your plastic people. While it may seem insignificant at the time being, it does add up. Check out the efforts of these two Bali localswho are trying to reduce the use of plastic bags on their home island.