Kuala Lumpur: Semporna, a remote town on the northern tip of Borneo, is famous for some of Malaysia’s most stunning dive sites and marine life, but that fame has been tarnished over the past few years with plastic litter littering the shoreline.
Plastic pollution is one of the most pressing environmental issues. The production of disposable plastic products has grown exponentially over the past two decades, outstripping the world’s ability to deal with them.
More than 380 million tonnes of plastic is produced globally each year, of which about half is single-use plastic, or plastic that is disposed of after use, such as bags or food packages. While less than 10 percent of plastic is recycled, about 10 million tons of it enters the oceans a year and can last up to 400 years before it decomposes, according to Plastic Oceans.
In Semporna and other parts of the beautiful state of Sabah, residents have seen their beaches and coral reefs slowly disappear as discarded plastic wraps around them, and animals that depend on the sea for sustenance are poisoned And gets deformed due to swallowing of indigestible waste.
Aware of the conveniences of plastics and the impossibility of eliminating them from our lives, the students of Mara Junior Science College in Sempona have come up with a way to combat the problem of pollution: they decided to fight plastic with plastic – in a different way. , however, is made from seaweed, which does not harm marine species.
“The students are sons of Semporna, thus they have a sense of duty to protect and preserve the beautiful islands and marine life,” their biology teacher and project mentor Shahrul Hafiz Abdul Ghani told Arab News.
“They decided to use seaweed, which is an abundant natural resource in Sempona, and produce seaweed-based bioplastics such as straws and plastic bags… It is biodegradable and will reduce our dependence on plastic “
Ghani’s team, which includes Faheem Nazan, Muhammad Fauzan Lakrani and Muhammad Fauzi Lakrani, is using Kappaphycus, a species of red algae that is common in Malaysian waters.
One of the fastest growing organisms on Earth, seaweed is a sustainable material to use as a replacement for plastic packaging. It is biodegradable in about four to six weeks.
“We are now at the stage of developing an improved prototype to make sure it has the right durability and plasticity… There is a commercial potential for seaweed, and we are looking for more funding for our bioplastic,” Ghani said. are on the lookout.” that his students are going to present their prototype seaweed plastic bags, utensils and straws this year.
The only major drawback to the production of seaweed-based bioplastic is its cost at present, as processing technologies have only been developed around the world in recent years.
Chung Ngin Jhun, who founded Malaysian seaweed startup Rodomax four years ago, told Arab News that support was still too low to develop such an initiative.
“Many Malaysians are not aware of the potential uses of seaweed other than being used as nori for sushi. There have been initiatives from the government since 2018 to get rid of single-use plastic… There is a move in that direction, but such a trend is usually set by the more affluent section of the society. It is not really a holistic approach, probably due to lack of education,” he said.
Chung’s company is a leader in the Malaysian market, manufacturing seaweed-based vegan leather, bioplastics and mineral supplements. A Sabah native, he sources raw materials from the region and from neighboring Indonesia.
“It also grows naturally without the use of land and without the use of freshwater, without the use of agricultural inputs, which makes it an ideal resource for a more sustainable future,” Chung said, but the abundance of seaweed Regardless, the industry will have difficulty growing locally.
“Unfortunately, there is a lack of narrative on this side of the world, the global South only produces raw materials… We don’t have the infrastructure to fund projects like ours, we don’t even have the laws and lawmakers to Who are aware of such circular economy models and how to drive government programs to support initiatives like ours.
According to Siti Nahdatul Isnaini Said Hussein, a scientist at the National Institute of Biotechnology Malaysia, another obstacle to the development of the seaweed industry in Malaysia could be the continuity of supply.
“The current rate of production in Sabah coastal areas is not promising enough to ensure a sustainable source of seaweed supply for commercial bioplastic production,” he said, adding that the farming cycle was disturbed by plant diseases and grazers such as turtles or milkfish. Is. see weed.
On the other hand, there are regular foreign buyers of seaweed farmed in the region, mainly from China, who offer producers higher prices than the local market.
The development of seaweed bioplastics in Malaysia, in Hussain’s opinion, could be more successful if linked to the material’s other properties, particularly its edibility and appeal as a halal product to consumers in the Muslim-majority country .
“The future of seaweed-based bioplastics may be more promising by focusing on the strengths of seaweed – its high nutritional content, edible and water-soluble anti-inflammatory properties,” she said.
“Halal encapsulation, edible food pouches, and other applications of bioplastics related to food will be more attractive and marketable.”