Malaysia eats more plastic every day than 108 other countries, study finds

The study, published in the Environmental Science and Technology journal, found that Malaysians eat an average of 502.3mg of microplastics daily per capita.

It noted that more than 50 per cent of Malaysia’s microplastic consumption came from fish.

Malaysia was also recorded among the top 10 countries that inhaled the most microplastic particles, at an estimated 494,000 microplastic particles a day per capita, according to the study.

Microplastics – plastic particles smaller than 5mm – are commonly found in freshwater and marine environments, where they are ingested by organisms that are then consumed by humans.

Industrial development has driven increasing levels of plastic pollution, said the study’s authors Xiang Zhao, a professor from the National University of Defence Technology in China, and Fengqi You, a professor in energy systems engineering at Cornell University in the US.

“Dietary microplastics involve those accumulated in foodstuffs and the material losses from plastic use in food and drink production, processing, and final product packaging,” they said.

“Meanwhile, airborne microplastics mainly originate from the abrasion of plastic materials, such as those in tyres and blow-ups from aquatic plastic particulates.”

One major source of aquatic microplastics is mismanaged plastic waste run-offs from landfills or open dumping, the study found.

“These plastic particulates can contaminate water systems and microplastics in freshwater and saltwater environments, are then dispersed via water currents or air transmission and penetrate into the food chain,” it said.

Airborne and dietary microplastic uptake increased more than six-fold from 1990 to 2018 across Asia, Africa, and America, including China and the United States,