Each year the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of it discarded after just a few minutes of use. Negotiators hope to reach the world's first treaty on plastic pollution this year, but across five very different countries, AFP found single-use plastic remains hugely popular as a cheap and convenient choice, illustrating the challenges ahead: On a Bangkok street lined with food vendors, customers line up for Maliwan's famed traditional sweets. Steamed layer cakes — green with pandan leaf or blue with butterfly pea — sit in clear plastic bags alongside rows of taro pudding in plastic boxes.
Each day, the 40-year-old business uses at least two kilos of single-use plastic. "Plastic is easy, convenient and cheap," said 44-year-old owner Watchararas Tamrongpattarakit. Banana leaves used to be standard, but they are increasingly expensive and hard to source.
They are also onerous to use because each one must be cleaned and checked for tears. It "isn't practical for our pace of sales," said Watchararas. Thailand started limiting single-use plastic before the pandemic, asking major retailers to stop handing out bags for free.
But the policy has largely fallen by the wayside, with little uptake among the country's street food vendors. Thailand produces two million tons of plastic waste a year, according to the country's Pollution Control Department. The World Bank estimates 11 percent goes uncollected, and is burned, disposed of on land or leaks into ri.