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Bangkok, 23 June 2020 – The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Food Industry Asia (FIA) today released a regional survey of consumers and food and beverage businesses across South-East Asia that shows a significant disconnect between expectation and action on reducing plastic waste. The challenges of plastic pollution have only increased in the past few months, with the COVID-19 pandemic generating a surge in waste.
The survey polled consumers and businesses in five countries that are estimated to be among the top 10 sources of plastic marine debris globally - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.
“Plastic pollution is choking the waters of South-East Asia,” said Dechen Tsering, UNEP’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. “We will need fundamental change throughout the plastic value chain to achieve clean seas and beat plastic pollution. Governments, businesses and consumers can all increase their ambition and improve their efforts to achieve this goal.”
Among the key findings were that:
(*) Consumers are concerned about plastic waste, but are not changing habits. While 91% of consumers state that they are concerned about plastic waste issues, fewer than half are less likely to buy a product from non-recycled material.
(*) Consumers’ focus on recycling is increasing. While only 54% of consumers are recycling and converting their plastic waste into useful products, 38% more have indicated their interest to do so in the next 12 to 18 months.
(*) Businesses understand that their current efforts are not sufficient. While 82% of businesses are extremely concerned about plastic waste issues, less than half feel their current efforts are sufficient to address the problem.
(*) Targets by businesses on plastic waste need strengthening. 80% of businesses have targets to address plastic waste but of those companies with a target, less than one-third communicate it externally. Among business targets to reduce plastic waste, 74% are quantitative but only 59% have indicated deadlines.
(*) Many businesses are not yet engaged in industry collaborations to tackle plastic waste issues. Over half of businesses (51%) in the five countries are not part of any group tackling plastic waste issues. This ranges from 76% in Viet Nam to 24% in Thailand.
(*) Both consumers and businesses want and expect further action by governments. Consumers and businesses recognise that governments are concerned with plastic waste. Key actions by government considered most critical include mandating waste segregation, enhancing collection systems, ensuring consistent labelling on product recycling, and imposing littering fines and charges.
The surveys were conducted from January to April 2020 in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam, sampling 2,000 consumers and 400 food and beverage businesses across the five countries. Efforts were taken to ensure that the sample covered a wide range of companies across the value chain, company ownership structure, company size and locations within the countries, while quotas were instituted to ensure accurate demographic representation of the consumers. A similar survey will be conducted in 2022 for comparison.
CONTINUE READING ON www.unenvironment.org
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