‘Death by plastic’ for animals must spur Southeast Asia to tackle waste crisis

The animal is dead. It can be a fish, bird, mammal or reptile. An autopsy is conducted and inevitably reams of plastic are discovered in its stomach.

When I wake up every morning, I step into my bathroom and survey the shelves. There are rows of multicoloured plastic containers: toothpaste, hair conditioners, hand soap, creams and eye lotions. Since I’m always travelling, I also have stacks of those cheap, single-use shampoo sachets. Nowadays, I feel as if I’m a perpetrator and the killer of all those animals.

It’s easy to succumb to hopelessness due to the scale of it all. But let’s pause and get some perspective for a second.

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Karim Raslan