Lethal overload of plastic

So much waste: Workers clearing mounds of plastic waste floating in Sg Klang. — AFP

THE World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) has reported that compared with China, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Malaysia has the highest annual per capita plastic consumption, at 16.8kg per person.

All six nations contribute 60% of the estimated eight million tonnes of plastic entering the world’s oceans each year. Coincidently, 60% is also the percentage of plastic waste found in the roughly 1,000 tonnes of rubbish collected every month from one of the world’s dirtiest rivers, our very own Sg Klang.