Plastic Restriction:

The Malaysian Situation Municipal Authority To Restrict Plastic Packaging

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On July 1, 1997, the Seberang Perai Municipal Council (MPSP) pioneered a courageous move towards the preservation of the environment. On this date, MPSP undoubtedly was the first municipal council in Malaysia to restrict the use of plastic packaging in areas under its jurisdiction. Such a visionary move will go a long way to reshape the norms and attitudes of Malaysians towards the use of plastics, a common material often taken for granted by many. They are no doubt convenient but at what cost?

Enormous research in the environmental effects of plastics have shown that these materials are relatively inert and not degradable, unlike wood, paper, natural fibres or even metal and glass. In other instances, plastics which were thrown indiscriminately into the ocean and other water ways have resulted in the the suffocation and death of sea animals such as turtles and dolphins.

The move by MPSP should therefore be welcomed and supported as we move towards achieving the status of a developed nation by the year 2020. Indeed, most industrialised countries right now have either banned or restrict the use of plastic packaging so as to reduce the environmental degradation resulting from it.

Globally, new environmental regulations, societal concerns and a growing environmental awareness throughout the world has triggered a paradigm shift in developing products and processes which are compatible with the environment. In tandem with this awareness, a new concept of designing materials from Cradle to Grave has been proposed which integrates material design concepts with ultimate disposability, resource utilisation and conservation.

At present, plastic materials have been considered to be an essential part of modern living due its features of strength, light-weight, being inexpensive, easily processable and energy efficient. With their inert properties, plastics are widely used as packaging materials as they maintain the purity and freshness of the content as well as protecting it. Since World War II, plastic proved to be a rich source of acceptable substitute for various sources of natural materials such as rubber, silk and many metals. The packaging industry is the leading user of plastics accounting for about 40% of the total world plastic production.

Million of tons of packaging are discarded as solid waste each year. In a survey among the developed countries, an average of 398 kg of domestic waste are generated annually by each person. Although the content of plastic materials in a municipal solid waste (MSW) has been estimated in the range of 7-12 % by weight, the proportion contributed by volume from them ranges from 18-30 % of the solid waste. This increase in the proportion of the plastics is due to their inherent low density and thus requiring larger landfill areas. An estimate on the continuous amount of plastic being thrown away as domestic waste showed that out of 20,000 million kg of resin products made a year, 12,000 million kg (60%) would end up as MSW.

Among the various solutions offered to the increased volume of plastics, incineration and recycling appear to be the most promising on technological and economic grounds. Incineration, unfortunately, is proving unfriendly to the environment. It is obvious that recycling alone will not be sufficient to handle all of the post-consumer plastic waste expected over the next decade. According to another estimate, by the year 2000, no less than 3 billion kg of thermoplastics like high density polyethylene (HDPE), polyethylene terepthalate (PET) and low density polyethylene (LDPE) are expected to be recycled representing a mere 7% of the total stock of post-consumer plastic waste. The other 93% will still continue to be discarded in landfills unless another solution can be found.

In Malaysia, the method of disposal for municipal solid waste particularly has been largely through landfilling (90%) with a very little share of recycling (8%) and incineration (1-2%). As it becomes increasingly difficult to obtain new landfill areas due to the awareness of the lay public through the phenomenon called not in my backyard, two alternatives remain, namely waste reduction either by recycling or the use of degradable plastics.

Looking at the scenario globally, the distribution of MSW in future is expected to change with the aim of reducing the overall amount of MSW production through education and home composting. Home composting is an ecologically and environmentally sound approach to transfer biodegradable waste into useful fertilisers. The European Communities (EC) for example, has set the disposal method: 55% through recycling and composting, 35% through incineration and about 10% through landfilling.

Promotion of Biodegradable Plastics

The development of biodegradable plastics can play a crucial role in helping solve our waste disposal problems. Since waste reduction is important for future municipal solid waste, a number of important issues need to be addressed to ensure that new biodegradable plastics industry develops. Today, the main obstacle to widespread use of biodegradable plastics is cost. In the United States, biodegradable plastics are priced at $2.50-6.00 per pound of the resin which is about five fold higher as compared to the common thermoplastics. Due to their high prices, most current applications for biodegradable plastics are in niche packaging area with unique environmental considerations. Other factors which will be important in determining the future growth of biodegradable plastics include the following:

Regulatory Actions

The development of the biodegradable plastics industry in the US has demonstrated that unfounded claims were made on the material being used as biodegradable plastics. The first generation of allegedly biodegradables i.e. starch filled polyolefins have been shown to be actually a non-biodegradable material. This material could at best be described as biodisintegrable and not completely biodegradable. Data showed that only the surface starch biodegrades leaving behind a recalcitrant polyethylene material. In addition, starch entrapped within the polyethylene matrix did not appear to be degraded.
Based on the above development, a number of regulatory actions resulted which among others define the biodegradability of a product taken as 'the properties of the material when exposed to a waste management facility that is, designed to ensure biodegradation and the product at issue will safely break down at a sufficiently rapid rate and with enough completeness when disposed of in that system'. Moreover, the breakdown products of the biodegradation process should be non-toxic and should not build up in the environment at a faster rate than they are being utilised by the microorganisms.

Incentives for research and development on
biodegradable plastics

Scientific research into biodegradable plastics is important for the technology in plastic waste management to go forward. New approaches, new products and new developments are needed to ensure further growth into this area. At Universiti Sains Malaysia, a multi-disciplinary research approach has been initiated to develop biodegradable plastics using locally available resources. The progress achieved thus far is described below:

Biodegradable Plastics Research at Universiti Sains Malaysia

The emphasis of the research is on the production of a group of bacterial polyester identified as poly(hydroxyalkanoates) from palm oil, a renewable resource and one of Malaysia primary commodities. The research group has been able to isolate a number of local microorganisms which has been shown to produce a widely used standard plastic for biodegradability namely, poly(3-hydroxybutyrate). The results has so far indicated that palm oil is an efficient raw material for the production of the plastic as compared to the common raw material, glucose, being used to produce the plastic at the industrial scale. The theoretical biochemical pathway from palm oil has indicated that the local substrate is capable of producing the plastic about three times higher than the carbohydrate source. For 1997, the project has acquired a 100 liter fermenter to study the aspect of pilot-scale production of the plastic before embarking into the large industrial scale production. The biodegradable plastic research group has been funded through research grants from the Malaysian government since 1990. Further research is now being conducted to identify the genes responsible for the production of the plastic inside the microorganism. Besides this, the development of a standard biodegradation testing would also be carried out to ascertain the mechanism of biodegradation under the local tropical condition.

The standard development activities

The issue of standard specifications for biodegradable plastics needs to be conducted by an independent and well represented committee. The test methodology to measure the intrinsic biodegradability should take into consideration the local environmental condition as well as the local microbial organisms. Inclusive in the test methodology, the test methods to stimulate the environment that are representative of waste management infrastructure on a laboratory scale. Parallel tests in real world systems need to be run to confirm and establish biodegradabiltiy. To harmonise the various standards for biodegradation, evaluation of the various standards such as Sturm test for Ready Biodegradability, the Japanese MITI test for biodegradation and the American Standard Organisation, ASTM standard for intrinsic biodegradability of plastic materials under an aerobic and anaerobic environment should be performed as well.

The need to increase for composting infrastructure

Composting can be defined as "accelerated degradation of heterogeneous organic matter by a mixed microbial population in a moist, warm, aerobic environment under controlled conditions". It is truly biological recycling of carbon. By mixing the biodegradable plastic together with other agricultural waste would generate a valuable compost as the main component along with water and carbon dioxide. Thus, the generation of the compost when added to soil would give rise to a more complete natural recycling mechanism as compared to the present context of recycling be it aluminium can or plastic recycling. Furthermore, the value added compost being generated would provide additional incentive to drive the biodegradable plastics venture to success.

Integration of the material with the various waste management infrastructure

The attributes of biodegradability for a product will only make sense if the product is collected and sent to a waste management facility where the product can undergo biodegradation. In line with the future development of the waste management system, composting, sewage and waste water treatment facilities, anaerobic digesters and active landfills are waste management infrastructures where biodegradability is important. Therefore, to ensure that a product meets today's environment criteria, integration of waste management with the product has to occur and evaluation on the attributes be carried out to determine whether the claim can be validated under such systems.

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