According to one Burmese idiom, ‘a spark on litter burns the whole spire down’, which means, sometimes issues that seem insignificant can grow into colossal problems, without warning. The problem of waste is one such issue.
Waste has led to clashes between countries from both the East and the West. Five years ago, Canada shipped 1,500 tons of waste, packed in 69 containers, to the Philippines. The archipelagic country was highly offended and demanded that Canada take care of its own waste.
At a time when most types of garbage decomposed easily, littering wasn’t a big issue. But now, in a world of plastics and products which can take decades or even centuries to decompose, waste has become a global problem.
Recently, a blocked underground sewage in Sangyung, Yangon, was cleaned and tons of waste which had accumulated over years was removed. Plastic water bottles and Styrofoam boxes made up most of the waste.
Careless littering causes sewer lines to back up and rainwater to flood the streets, and plastic waste is often the chief culprit.
According to recent news reports, the microplastic density is now higher in the oceans linked to northern Rakhine compared with the Ayeyawady Delta and its connected oceans, while old fishing nets and other kinds of waste are being salvaged from underwater coral reefs in the Myeik Archipelago.
Plastic products thrown into the sea years ago break into tiny pieces, about 5mm in size, called microplastics, under the effect of the tide, the sun, and the environment. Sea creatures ingesting them in large amounts, mistaking them for food, end up dying. No one, not even the mighty whales, dolphins, seals, and other large residents of the deep are safe from plastic waste.
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) is the largest of the five offshore plastic accumulation zones in the world’s oceans. It is located halfway between Hawaii and California and formed gradually as a result of oceanic or marine pollution, gathered by ocean currents.
Researchers from The Ocean Cleanup project have claimed that the patch extends over 1.6 million square kilometres, which is thrice the size of France. An estimated 90,000 metric tons, totalling 1.9 trillion pieces, of plastic can be found in the patch. We are not sure when exactly this gyre of marine debris was formed, but it was only brought to attention 30 years ago.
We must implement systems to carefully dispose plastic and Styrofoam products in each township across the nation, and be ever vigilant to prevent waste from foreign countries entering our homes._GNLM
