Change your behaviour

Adjusting one’s lifestyle is better than legal action to encourage recycling, lessen plastics use

SHOULD reducing plastic pollution be made legally binding or a voluntary action?

For me, it is the latter.

We have to be responsible consumers.

We can no longer turn a blind eye to our responsibility, for example when we see heaps of plastic water bottles floating in our rivers.

For decades, plastic bottles have been a popular alternative to good old glass bottles.

Many consumers think the single-use plastic water bottles they discard in dustbins will end up at landfills.

In reality, the bottles don’t.

Plastic bottles come with environmental issues, leading to pollution.

The Polluters Pay Policy (PPP), where those found discharging effluents into the river will have to pay for any amount released beyond the regulated limit, is discussed even at local council level.

I am sceptical that our consumers are ready to pay for all the trash they discard.

However, I believe there is still some hope because people nowadays are more aware of their responsibility towards a clean environment.

Petaling Jaya folk, for instance, are serious in practising recycling.

Some 70% of Ara Damansara residents have been partici-pating in the Door-to-Door Collection and Recycling Programme led by Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ).

Large amounts of rubbish such as plastics, including water bottles, seen here being cleared from Sungai Klang in September 2024. — Filepic

From the inception of the programme in 2020 until end-2023, a total of 6,851 tonnes of recyclables have been collected.

Taking an adult Asian elephant’s weight at four tonnes, the amount of waste gathered so far equates to 1,712 elephants.

Whatever said and done, we must make voluntary lifestyle changes for the sake of the environment.

We can opt for products that come in glass bottles instead of plastic as the former are eco-friendly.

In simple economic terms, demand makes the supply grow.

While authorities and non-governmental organisations tackle the issue of plastic their way, we, the consumers, have to make behavioural changes at home.

When I visited a shopping complex recently, I found glass water dispensers for homes.

I decided it was time to discard the plastic version I had at home and switch to the glass option.

I have my own steel water container too and I bring it with me everywhere.

In my younger days, I used to buy water in single-use plastic bottles because I didn’t know about pollution then.

Local authorities, schools, shopping centres and public places including places of worship should instal water dispensers at their premises.

Guests should also be served water in glass cups or paper cups at the very least, at government and private events.

Plastic pollution also became the topic of discussion at the United Nations-backed Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) held in Busan, South Korea.

It was supposed to have been the final round in efforts to come up with the first global treaty on plastics pollution by the end of this year.

The Star report on Dec 25, titled “Global Plastics Treaty: Why the talks failed at Busan, and where do we go from here?” stated that the talks, attended by over 3,300 delegates from more than 200 countries and 440 organisations, concluded on Dec 2 without an agreement.

The delegates could not see eye-to-eye on key issues such as financing for developing countries to transition from plastics, controlling the use of chemicals used in manufacturing plastics and setting a cap on production.

However, the main clash at the negotiations appeared to be about whether cutting plastic pollution should be made legally binding or left as a voluntary action coupled with prioritising better waste management and recycling.

I still say it should be voluntary action, and we consumers can do it.