BANGKOK, Nov 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - 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:

Bangkok

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 rivers and the ocean.

Watchararas tries to consolidate purchases into fewer bags and said some
customers bring their own reusable containers and totes.

But Radeerut Sakulpongpaisal, a Maliwan customer for 30 years, said she finds
plastic "convenient".

"I also understand the environmental impact," the bank worker said.

But "it's probably easier for both the shop and the customers".

Lagos

In the Obalende market at the heart of Nigeria's economic capital Lagos,
emptied water sachets litter the ground.

Each day, Lisebeth Ajayi watches dozens of customers use their teeth to tear
open the bags of "pure water" and drink.

"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.

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.

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.

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.

Lagos banned single-use plastic in January, but with little impact so far.

The United Nations estimates up to 60 million water sachets are discarded
across Nigeria every day.

Rio

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.

The iced beverage, infused with fruit juice, is dispensed into plastic cups
for eager sun worshippers dotted along the seafront.

"Drinking mate is part of Rio de Janeiro's culture," explained Arthur Jorge
da Silva, 47, as he scouted for customers.

He acknowledged the environmental impacts of his towers of plastic cups, in a
country ranked the fourth-biggest producer of plastic waste in 2019.

But "it's complicated" to find affordable alternatives, he told AFP.

The tanned salesman said mate vendors on the beach had used plastic for as
long as he could remember.

He pays a dollar for a tower of 20 cups and charges customers $1.80 for each
drink.

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.

Evelyn Talavera, 24, said she does her best to clean up when leaving the
beach.

"We have to take care of our planet, throw the garbage away, keep the
environment clean."

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.

Congress is also considering legislation that would ban all single-use
plastic.

Paris

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.

At Paris' Aligre market, stalls are piled with fruit, vegetables and stacks
of bags ready to be handed out.

Most are stamped "reusable and 100-percent recyclable", and some are
described as compostable or produced from natural materials.

But experts have cast doubt on the environmental relevance of some of these
claims.

Vendor Laurent Benacer gets through a 24-euro ($26) box of 2,000 bags each
week.

"In Paris, everyone asks for a bag," he told AFP.

"I'd stopped, but my neighbours continued, so I had to restart."

There are alternatives like paper bags, but some customers are simply not
convinced.

"Plastic bags remain practical, so everything doesn't spill everywhere,"
insisted 80-year-old customer Catherine Sale.

Dubai

At the Allo Beirut restaurant in Dubai, plastic containers are piled high,
waiting to be filled and delivered across the city.

"We receive more than 1,200 orders a day," said delivery manager Mohammed
Chanane.

"We use plastic boxes because they are more airtight, and better preserve the
food," he said.

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.

Residents of the United Arab Emirates have one of the highest volumes of
waste per capita in the world.

And single-use plastic accounts for 40 percent of all plastic used in the
country.

Since June, single-use plastic bags and several similar items have been
banned. Polystyrene containers will follow next year.

Allo Beirut is considering using cardboard containers, a move customer Youmna
Asmar would welcome.

She admitted horror at the build-up of plastic in her bins after a weekend of
family orders.

"I say to myself, if all of us are doing this, it's a lot."