Projected plastic waste loss scenarios between 2000 and 2030 into the largest freshwater-lake system in Southeast Asia

Abstract

Freshwater plastic pollution is critically understudied in Southeast Asia (SEA). Recent modelling studies indicate that SEA rivers contribute vast quantities of plastic to the world’s oceans, however, these fail to capture the complexity of individual systems. We determine the volume of mismanaged plastic waste (MPW) entering Tonle Sap Basin (TSB)—the largest freshwater lake–river system in SEA, between 2000 and 2030. Using economic, population and waste data at provincial and national levels, coupled with high resolution population and flood datasets, we estimate that ca. 221,700 tons of plastic entered between 2000 and 2020, and 282,300 ± 8700 tons will enter between 2021 and 2030. We demonstrate that policy interventions can reduce MPW up to 76% between 2021 and 2030. The most-stringent scenario would prevent 99% of annual MPW losses by 2030, despite substantially higher waste volumes and population. If successfully implemented, Cambodia will prevent significant losses in natural capital, material value and degradation in TSB worth at least US$4.8 billion, with additional benefits for the Mekong River and South China Sea.

Riverine Plastic Pollution in Asia: Results from a Bibliometric Assessment

“…The focus on studying the most polluted rivers, particularly in countries with rapid economic development and poor waste management is essential [10,27,78]. Finnegan and Gouramanis [65] show that when projecting waste loss scenarios between 2000 and 2030, the biggest single decreases of microplastics are observed with plastic bags representing the largest plastic-type. This illustrates the importance of the consequences of consumption trends to the environment.…”

“…Furthermore, studies have mostly been focusing on marine ecosystems, and there is an urgent need to increase the knowledge on freshwater systems. Most freshwater studies have been carried out in Europe and North America [27,34,64,65], and van Calcar and van Emmerik [34] claim to have published the first study providing a transcontinental overview of plastic transport, underlining that Asian rivers transport more plastics towards the ocean (Asian rivers studied transport almost 30 times more macroplastics than the European rivers studied). As a result, substantial amounts of plastic debris are found in the Pacific region [66].…”

Estimating plastic pollution levels in rivers through harmonized monitoring strategies

“…The Mekong river is nearly 5000 km long, and its basin spans across China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam (Fig. 2C) (Haberstroh et al, 2021;Finnegan and Gouramanis, 2021). We focused on the area around Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia.…”

Is the Plastic Pandemic a Greater Threat to Humankind than COVID-19?

“…Nonetheless, in the current anthropospheric world of accelerated economy amidst the exceptionally rapid production–disposal cycle in a supply chain, the volume of waste plastic on Earth has surpassed the measure of any known material waste. 1 With time, the ecosystem wavefront in the existent terrestrial and aquatic plane has transformed to an environmentally unfavorable structure, where plastics have undergone fragmentary degradation into microplastics and nanoplastics. 2 A comprehensive assessment of the plastic lifecycle performed by Hamilton et al provides us with the statistic of a yearly release of more than 0.6 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG), which has been one of the prime causal sources for the drastic increase in the global warming, leading to an amplified dynamics of climate change.…”

“…Nonetheless, in the current anthropospheric world of accelerated economy amidst the exceptionally rapid production–disposal cycle in a supply chain, the volume of waste plastic on Earth has surpassed the measure of any known material waste . With time, the ecosystem wavefront in the existent terrestrial and aquatic plane has transformed to an environmentally unfavorable structure, where plastics have undergone fragmentary degradation into microplastics and nanoplastics .…”