The Sunday Times says

Trash poor attitudes towards waste

New: Gift this subscriber-only story to your friends and family

So great is the dependency on plastic that 5 trillion such bags will be used this year. With 10 per cent of this plastic winding up in oceans, the scale of the problem was brought into focus jarringly by a recent report. The size of a great oceanic dump of plastic waste, caught by circular currents in the Pacific Ocean, is bigger than previously feared. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now the combined size of the Java Sea, Strait of Malacca, Andaman Sea and Gulf of Thailand.

Mercifully, some countries are doing their bit to tackle plastic pollution. In England, a small charge for plastic bags was introduced which led to a reduction of nearly 90 per cent in their use. Denmark and Ireland have done the same, while other European nations will have to introduce measures to comply with the European Union's requirement of cutting plastic bag use by 80 per cent by 2019. Many other countries have implemented bans, like Kenya and Rwanda.

Already a subscriber? 

Read the full story and more at $9.90/month

Get exclusive reports and insights with more than 500 subscriber-only articles every month

Unlock these benefits

  • All subscriber-only content on ST app and straitstimes.com

  • Easy access any time via ST app on 1 mobile device

  • E-paper with 2-week archive so you won't miss out on content that matters to you

Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on April 01, 2018, with the headline Trash poor attitudes towards waste. Subscribe