Pollution and waste
Solid waste
We need new weapons against packaging waste
Last month, researchers found microplastics — small, microscopic pieces of plastic fragments — within human lungs for the first time. This comes on the heels of news that microplastics were found in human blood, which may travel around the body and enter organs. Microplastics find their ...
SIMON BALDWIN
Commentary: What can Southeast Asia do about all this COVID-19 waste?
For the last couple of years, virtually every news feed or broadcast has included images of mask-clad people or health workers suited up as protection from COVID-19. While the images might be ephemeral, those masks and personal protective equipment (PPE), along with used test kits and ...
JJ Rose
Consumption of plastics doubles in Myanmar amid pandemic: environmental group
According to Thant Myanmar, the consumption of plastic has doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic in Myanmar. Ma The Su Aye, manager of Thant Myanmar’s Rural Waste Management, told DMG that the increase was due to the increasing use of plastics, which are currently being used during ...
Development Media Group
Island of rubbish: Koh Samui’s pollution problem remains unsolved
No one can argue with the appeal of visiting Thailand’s exotic, tropical islands. With their glistening palm trees, crystal-clear waters, and powdery, white sands, a trip down south is what many yearn to cross off their bucket lists. One of Thailand’s most iconic islands is that ...
The Thaiger
Vietnam to need 80,000 tonnes of biodegradable plastics annually by 2025
The demand for biodegradable plastics in Vietnam is projected to reach 80,000 tonnes annually by 2025, according to Associate Prof. Dr. Le Hung Anh, Director of the Institute of Environmental Science, Engineering and Management. At a recent workshop on biodegradable plastic production and consumption held by the Ministry of Natural ...
VNA
Plastic gets to the oceans through over 1,000 rivers
The problem with plastic waste just got more complicated—and so did the effort to stanch its flow into the world’s oceans. Rivers are the primary conduits for plastic waste to the seas. In 2017, two separate groups of scientists concluded that 90 percent of river-borne plastic ...
LAURA PARKER
Google helps tackle plastic pollution in the Mekong River, aided by machine learning
The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has partnered with Google to fight plastic pollution in the Mekong River, leveraging citizen science and machine learning to understand the magnitude of the problem impacting the longest river in Southeast Asia. Aided by technical advisory support from Google, the CounterMEASURE ...
James Henderson (Channel Asia)
Vietnamese firms to tackle plastic pollution in Ha Long Bay
Three Vietnamese companies have won a regional challenge to combat plastic waste in Ha Long Bay. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE), the Vietnam Administration of Sea and Islands (VASI), the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs ...
Deadliest catch: Thailand's 'ghost' fishing nets help Covid fight
Underwater divers in plastic-choked waters off the coast of Thailand snip through discarded nets tangled around a reef — a new initiative helping protect marine life and aiding the fight against coronavirus. The “ghost nets” discarded from the country’s lucrative fishing industry are a deadly source ...
AFP
Plastic Pollution: We Need To Act Now
The Great Pacific garbage patch is a collection of plastic and floating trash with two enormous masses of ever-growing garbage. The patch consists of finger-sized bits of plastic – often microscopic particles, chemical sludge, wood pulp, and other debris trapped by the northern circulating currents ...
The ASEAN Post Team