Solving Asia's waste problem the green way

If there's one item that epitomizes our modern world, it's plastic. It's easy to make and use but does untold damage, especially in Asia where rivers, lakes and oceans are literally choking on it.

We are only now learning how pollution has a huge impact on the base of our food web and the oxygen-producing plankton (phytoplankton) in our oceans. Phytoplankton use dissolved carbon dioxide (CO2) in our oceans to produce around 70 percent of our oxygen. They single-handedly remove a third of atmospheric CO2 in this way.

These very small creatures are sensitive to changes in their environment. As oceans become more acidic, they will need time to adapt. A possible scenario is, changes in dominant species, extinction of many species and pollution in surviving fishing stocks. The worst-case scenario is a catastrophic disruption to the base of oceanic food web, which currently feeds 1.4 billion people.