\n<\/p>\n
Each year the world produces around 400 million tonnes of plastic waste, much of it discarded after just a few minutes of use.<\/p>\n
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:<\/p>\n
Bangkok<\/p>\n
On a Bangkok street lined with food vendors, customers line up for Maliwan’s famed traditional sweets.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Each day, the 40-year-old business uses at least two kilos of single-use plastic.<\/p>\n
“Plastic is easy, convenient and cheap,” said 44-year-old owner Watchararas Tamrongpattarakit.<\/p>\n
Banana leaves used to be standard, but they are increasingly expensive and hard to source.<\/p>\n
They are also onerous to use because each one must be cleaned and checked for tears.<\/p>\n
It “isn’t practical for our pace of sales”, said Watchararas.<\/p>\n
Thailand started limiting single-use plastic before the pandemic, asking major retailers to stop handing out bags for free.<\/p>\n
But the policy has largely fallen by the wayside, with little uptake among the country’s street food vendors.<\/p>\n
Thailand produces two million tons of plastic waste a year, according to the country’s Pollution Control Department.<\/p>\n
The World Bank estimates 11 percent goes uncollected, and is burned, disposed of on land or leaks into rivers and the ocean.<\/p>\n
Watchararas tries to consolidate purchases into fewer bags and said some customers bring their own reusable containers and totes.<\/p>\n
But Radeerut Sakulpongpaisal, a Maliwan customer for 30 years, said she finds plastic “convenient”.<\/p>\n
“I also understand the environmental impact,” the bank worker said.<\/p>\n
But “it’s probably easier for both the shop and the customers”.<\/p>\n
Lagos<\/p>\n
In the Obalende market at the heart of Nigeria’s economic capital Lagos, emptied water sachets litter the ground.<\/p>\n
Each day, Lisebeth Ajayi watches dozens of customers use their teeth to tear open the bags of “pure water” and drink.<\/p>\n
“They don’t have the money to buy the bottle water, that’s why they do the pure water,” said the 58-year-old, who sells bottles and bags of water, soap and sponges.<\/p>\n
Two 500-millilitre sachets sell for between 50 to 250 naira (3-15 US cents), compared to 250-300 naira for a 750-ml bottle.<\/p>\n
Since they appeared in the 1990s, water sachets have become a major pollutant across much of Africa, but they remain popular for drinking, cooking and even washing.<\/p>\n
Some 200 firms produce the sachets in Lagos, and several hundred more recycle plastic, but supply vastly outstrips capacity in a country with few public wastebins and little environmental education.<\/p>\n
Lagos banned single-use plastic in January, but with little impact so far.<\/p>\n
The United Nations estimates up to 60 million water sachets are discarded across Nigeria every day.<\/p>\n
Rio<\/p>\n
Each day, vendors walk the sands of some of Rio de Janeiro’s most beautiful beaches, lugging metal containers filled with the tea-like drink mate.<\/p>\n
The iced beverage, infused with fruit juice, is dispensed into plastic cups for eager sun worshippers dotted along the seafront.<\/p>\n
“Drinking mate is part of Rio de Janeiro’s culture,” explained Arthur Jorge da Silva, 47, as he scouted for customers.<\/p>\n
He acknowledged the environmental impacts of his towers of plastic cups, in a country ranked the fourth-biggest producer of plastic waste in 2019.<\/p>\n
But “it’s complicated” to find affordable alternatives, he told AFP.<\/p>\n
The tanned salesman said mate vendors on the beach had used plastic for as long as he could remember.<\/p>\n
He pays a dollar for a tower of 20 cups and charges customers $1.80 for each drink.<\/p>\n
Bins along Rio’s beaches receive about 130 tons of waste a day, but plastic is not separated, and just three percent of Brazil’s waste is recycled annually.<\/p>\n
Evelyn Talavera, 24, said she does her best to clean up when leaving the beach.<\/p>\n
“We have to take care of our planet, throw the garbage away, keep the environment clean.”<\/p>\n
Plastic straws have been banned in Rio’s restaurants and bars since 2018, and shops are no longer required to offer free plastic bags — though many still do.<\/p>\n
Congress is also considering legislation that would ban all single-use plastic.<\/p>\n
Paris<\/p>\n
In France, single-use plastic has been banned since 2016, but while items like straws and plastic cutlery have disappeared, plastic bags remain stubbornly common.<\/p>\n
At Paris’ Aligre market, stalls are piled with fruit, vegetables and stacks of bags ready to be handed out.<\/p>\n
Most are stamped “reusable and 100-percent recyclable”, and some are described as compostable or produced from natural materials.<\/p>\n
But experts have cast doubt on the environmental relevance of some of these claims.<\/p>\n
Vendor Laurent Benacer gets through a 24-euro ($26) box of 2,000 bags each week.<\/p>\n
“In Paris, everyone asks for a bag,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n
“I’d stopped, but my neighbours continued, so I had to restart.”<\/p>\n
There are alternatives like paper bags, but some customers are simply not convinced.<\/p>\n
“Plastic bags remain practical, so everything doesn’t spill everywhere,” insisted 80-year-old customer Catherine Sale.<\/p>\n
Dubai<\/p>\n
At the Allo Beirut restaurant in Dubai, plastic containers are piled high, waiting to be filled and delivered across the city.<\/p>\n
“We receive more than 1,200 orders a day,” said delivery manager Mohammed Chanane.<\/p>\n
“We use plastic boxes because they are more airtight, and better preserve the food,” he said.<\/p>\n
With few pedestrians and an often-scorching climate, many of Dubai’s 3.7 million residents rely on delivery for everything from petrol to coffee.<\/p>\n
Residents of the United Arab Emirates have one of the highest volumes of waste per capita in the world.<\/p>\n
And single-use plastic accounts for 40 percent of all plastic used in the country.<\/p>\n
Since June, single-use plastic bags and several similar items have been banned. Polystyrene containers will follow next year.<\/p>\n
Allo Beirut is considering using cardboard containers, a move customer Youmna Asmar would welcome.<\/p>\n
She admitted horror at the build-up of plastic in her bins after a weekend of family orders.<\/p>\n
“I say to myself, if all of us are doing this, it’s a lot.”<\/p>\n
burs\/sah\/sco<\/p>\n<\/div>\n