Young scientists use seaweed to combat plastic pollution in Sabah Malaysia
Author: Aniket Dixit
Semporna, a remote town at the northernmost tip of Borneo, is famous for having some of the most beautiful diving sites and marine life in Malaysia, but in recent years, that fame has been waning as plastic waste litters the shoreline. One of the most pressing environmental issues is plastic pollution. Over the past 20 years, the production of disposable plastic items has grown exponentially, outstripping the global capacity to handle them. Global plastic production exceeds 380 million tonnes annually, of which about half is single-use plastic, or plastic that is discarded after use, such as bags or food packaging. According to Plastic Oceans, 10 million tons of plastic enter the ocean each year, of which less than 10% is recycled. Students from Mara Junior Science College in Semporna have developed a solution to the pollution issue after realizing the conveniences provided by plastics and the impossibility of eliminating them from our lives: they decided to combat plastic with plastic, Although it is made in a different way. Seaweed that doesn't harm marine life. Their biology teacher and project mentor Shahrul Hafiz Abdul Ghani told Arab News that because the students are natives of Semporna, they feel a responsibility to preserve and protect the region's stunning islands and marine life. In Semporna, seaweed is an abundant natural resource, so they chose to use it to make seaweed-based bioplastics such as straws and plastic bags. Because it degrades naturally, it will reduce our reliance on plastics.