Plastic pollution: A crisis we're already eating

The Star

a day ago

As a researcher with the Department of Fisheries Malaysia studying marine plastic pollution, I spend my days documenting a crisis that most people never see. Research on Malaysian beaches reveals between 64 to 1,930 pieces of plastic debris per square metre. Bottles, bags, food containers and abandoned fishing gear that tell the story of our plastic-dependent lifestyle. But this visible pollution represents only the surface of what our research team discovers when we dive deeper into our marine ecosystem.
The scale of Malaysia's plastic challenge through a researcher's eyes
My research on marine debris has taken me from the waters around Penang to remote fishing villages along our coastlines. Malaysia contributes an estimated 73,098 metric tonnes of plastic waste annually to our oceans, ranking us third globally among ocean polluters.
This staggering figure becomes real when I examine the contents of fishing nets, increasingly filled with plastic debris alongside the day's catch. During field studies in the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea, waters that have sustained our fishing communities for generations, I've documented how these vital waterways have become major pathways for plastic debris.
From single-use shopping bags to various types of marine debris, these items drift with currents, creating challenges for marine life and fishing operations. The research on marine debris includes studying lost and discarded fishing equipment, which represents a complex challenge in marine pollution.
These items can continue to impact marine environments after they're unintentionally lost or discarded due to various factors including severe weather, equipment failure, or operational difficulties. During our surveys, we've documented how such equipment can accumulate marine life and smaller plastic debris as it drifts, highlighting the need for better prevention strategies and recovery programmes.
The problem starts on land, as marine debris studies demonstrate. Inadequate waste management infrastructure, combined with increasing urbanisation, means that much of our plastic waste never reaches proper disposal facilities.
Through our tracking studies, we've mapped how plastic travels from urban centres through rivers and storm drains, eventually reaching marine environments where it fragments into the microplastics my laboratory team analyses daily.
The hidden dimension: My laboratory's microplastic discoveries
While my field work documents massive plastic debris, the most startling discoveries happen in my laboratory.
Our research, published in Physics and Chemistry of the Earth and conducted with colleagues from Marine Chemistry Laboratory, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, reveals that 93.3% of mackerel samples we examined contained microplastics, with an estimated microplastic intake to humans at 233.49 to 478.16 particles per year per capita. These are tiny fragments invisible to the naked eye that require microscopic analysis to detect.
Building on this foundation, our recent study published in Environmental Science: Advances with the Microplastics Research Interest Group, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, provides detailed morphochemical analysis of microplastic fibres found specifically in the edible tissue of commercial fish from the South China Sea and Straits of Malacca. Both research studies focus on fish species destined for human consumption, making the findings particularly relevant to food safety and public health in Malaysia.
Under the microscope, these particles tell a disturbing story across both studies. Concerning polymers were identified like PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) and rayon as the most common types found in fish tissue.
PTFE, familiar to consumers as non-stick coating, raises particular toxicity concerns when ingested by marine organisms. The morphochemical analysis reveals the detailed structure and composition of these fibres, providing crucial information about how different polymer types accumulate in fish tissue.
What makes this research personally compelling is the direct connection to Malaysian dinner tables. When I extract these microscopic particles from fish caught by local fishermen—fish destined for markets and family meals—the abstract concept of plastic pollution becomes immediate and personal.
The detailed morphochemical analysis of fibres in edible tissue reinforces that these aren't just environmental contaminants, but direct pathways into human food systems. These findings represent the culmination of my broader marine debris research: how large plastic waste eventually breaks down into particles that infiltrate the entire food web.
Policy progress and persistent challenges
Malaysia has begun addressing this crisis through targeted interventions. Plastic bag bans in select states achieved a 30% reduction in usage, demonstrating that policy action can yield measurable results.
The government is now considering comprehensive legislation specifically targeting plastic dumping and pollution, recognising this as a threat to national environmental and economic security. However, the challenge extends beyond single-use plastics.
Our waste management systems struggle to keep pace with growing plastic consumption. Informal dumping, inadequate recycling infrastructure, and limited producer responsibility programmes mean that much plastic waste still finds pathways to the ocean despite policy efforts.
The regional dimension adds complexity. Malaysia plans to raise plastic pollution at the ASEAN Summit 2025, acknowledging that ocean currents carry debris across borders. A plastic bottle discarded in one country's river can wash up on distant shores, making this fundamentally a shared regional challenge requiring coordinated solutions.
Learning from community innovation
International examples offer hope for transforming waste management approaches. In Kerala, India, 5,000 fishermen have collected 65 metric tonnes of plastic waste from the sea, processing it into road surfacing material.
Similar 'fishing for litter' programmes across Europe demonstrate how fishing communities can become active partners in ocean cleanup while generating economic value from recovered materials. The Department of Fisheries Malaysia is exploring incentive structures that could engage our fishing communities as partners in both plastic collection and marine monitoring programmes.
These programmes recognise that fishermen possess intimate knowledge of changing ocean conditions and maintain strong economic stakes in healthy marine environments.
From research to community impact
Najihah Mohamad is the toxicology unit head and impact assessment research division research officer at the Fisheries Research Institute. My work extends beyond laboratory analysis to field collaboration with fishing communities. When I share with the public microplastic particles under the microscope extracted from fish and shellfish they bought to feed their families, their reactions reflect the broader awakening needed across Malaysia. These moments bridge the gap between scientific research and community understanding, transforming abstract data into personal concern.
Through our marine debris surveys and microplastic monitoring, we've documented not just the extent of contamination, but also sparked community engagement. The research programmes have contributed to a 40% increase in voluntary clean-ups and 50% improvement in public understanding of plastic pollution issues. When communities see the direct connection between their daily choices and ocean health through the research findings, behavioural change follows.
Our collaboration with university partners and NGOs has been essential for developing innovative research methodologies. Working protocols were refined for extracting and identifying microplastics from environmental and biota samples, developed protocols for surveying marine debris and discarded fishing gear, and currently try to establish monitoring systems that provide long-term data on contamination trends.
Building comprehensive solutions: A long-term commitment
Addressing Malaysia's plastic waste crisis requires action across the entire plastic lifecycle, but we must be realistic about the challenges ahead. While comprehensive methods and frameworks for tackling this crisis are still being developed, the Department of Fisheries Malaysia maintains continuous efforts to address this mounting challenge.
This is not a problem that can be solved quickly or by government action alone as it requires sustained, long-term commitment from all parties. Enhanced waste management infrastructure must expand collection coverage while improving recycling capabilities. Producer responsibility programmes should make manufacturers accountable for their products' environmental costs, creating market incentives for sustainable packaging design.
However, implementing these solutions requires coordination between government agencies, private sector partners, and civil society organisations.
Community engagement remains crucial for changing consumption behaviours and improving waste separation at source.
Educational initiatives must connect daily plastic choices to marine health outcomes, making the invisible connections visible for consumers.
Yet behavioural change takes time and consistent reinforcement across all levels of society.
Regional cooperation through Asean frameworks can address transboundary pollution through coordinated policies, shared monitoring systems, and joint cleanup initiatives.
The waters that connect us can become channels for collaborative action rather than conduits for shared problems, but such cooperation requires political will and resource commitments from multiple nations.
Our scientific collaborations between government agencies, universities, and NGO partners must continue expanding, ensuring that evidence-based approaches guide both policy development and community interventions.
The Department of Fisheries Malaysia's ongoing research efforts provide the foundation for informed decision-making, but translating research into effective action remains an evolving process requiring patience and persistence.
The stakes for Malaysia's future
Current projections suggest we could have more plastic than fish in our seas by 2050, a timeline that feels both distant and alarmingly close when you spend your days, as I do, extracting plastic particles from fish organs.
For a researcher documenting this crisis daily, these projections represent not abstract future scenarios but the logical extension of current contamination trends I observe in my laboratory and field studies.
The evidence from our research demonstrates that this crisis has already infiltrated our food systems, affecting the fish that Malaysian families consume daily. Yet this evidence also represents our capacity to understand and respond to the challenge.
Through systematic study of marine debris and microplastic contamination, we're building the knowledge base needed for effective intervention, even as we acknowledge that comprehensive solutions remain under development.
Success stories from fishing communities worldwide prove that when properly supported, those closest to the ocean can become powerful allies in restoration efforts.
Every tonne of plastic we prevent from entering waterways, every alternative material we develop, and every community we engage in cleanup efforts contributes to turning the tide.
The health of our oceans and our
communities remain inseparably linked. The waters of the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea that have sustained Malaysian communities for millennia deserve our full commitment to their protection.
How we respond to this plastic waste crisis will determine whether future generations inherit oceans teeming with life or graveyards of our discarded convenience. The choice and the responsibility remain ours to make.
By Najihah Mohamad, Fisheries Research Institute toxicology unit head and impact assessment research division research officer.