The climate crisis began to be felt thirty years ago, and is currently being felt by almost all humans in various parts of the earth. The past ten years have been marked by so many natural disasters, including forest fires. Global warming continues to increase due to the lifestyle of modern humans in general. One of the main causes of global warming is plastic waste.
Since a hundred years ago, plastic began to become a part of human life. There are various types of plastic, and all of them are made from the same raw material, namely petroleum. Plastic makes people's lives more practical and comfortable. Society loses ecological awareness and is caught up in mistakes that are hard to stop.
Since thirty years ago, plastic began to have a negative impact on the environment, both on land and in the ocean. This is very worrying because of course it also has a negative impact on human health. Plastics packaging for food and drink products, finished and semi-finished are the most waste plastic.
This plastic waste problem is a global problem that synergizes with global free trade. The journey of trading plastic raw materials in the form of petroleum, from producing countries to petrochemical industrial countries. Then, the plastic ore trade trip to the trade trip for industrial products, both food products and non-food products. In general, if observed, the largest percentage of plastic packaging that becomes plastic waste is beverage packaging, namely PET type plastic.
In plain view, undeveloped countries and developing countries are seen as areas with scattered plastic waste, seen as countries that are very problematic because they have not been able to manage waste and waste professionally. However, in fact, several developed countries are the largest producers of plastic waste in the world, namely UK, Japan and America. The UK produces 1.8 million kilograms of plastic waste or 1800 tons every day.
UK's plastic waste has disposed of or exported to countries that are willing to accept it, including Indonesia, both legally and illegally. The journey of global trade in plastic waste has been in the spotlight of environmentalists. While travel itself contributes to an increasing ecological footprint and global warming, it is also unfair to the general public in countries receiving or importing plastic waste.
This plastic problem cannot be solved only with 3R efforts (reduce, reuse, recycle) if the petrochemical industry is still producing plastic ore. Supposedly, all plastic production from its raw materials should be stopped all over the world. And the existing plastics are managed properly in order to minimize their negative impact on the environment on this planet.
One of the plastic waste management efforts that can be very significant is to use it as a mixed material in the building materials industry. And I have observed (since 2017) that developing countries, through higher education institutions are encouraged to ostensibly “find solutions” for plastic waste by creating plastic hybrid composite formulas. Along with this, plastic waste flows from developed countries to developing countries.
After contemplating the properties of plastics, their cycles and circulation, I have this opinion:
The production of plastic hybrid composites should not be used as an export and import commodity, in other words, this product does not need to be a commodity in global free trade. But it is limited to only use in producing countries. For this purpose, there needs to be cooperation between parties that facilitate the problem of plastic waste management in each country, especially in the largest plastic waste producing countries in the world that I have mentioned above (UK, Japan and America).
The trade in plastic waste as an export and import commodity must be stopped, because it only adds to the ecological burden on the planet.
Plastic hybrid composites are indeed more suitable for use as building materials in non-tropical countries, so it is appropriate if the three largest plastic waste producing countries in the world produce these composites for their domestic needs. So, stop using developing countries! We are all on the same planet after all!
From various sources, directly or indirectly (via media).
Megati, 30 July 2021
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