Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, are throwing away billions to the ocean by continuing to use single-use plastics, according to the World Bank and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean). In a Blog, World Bank Managing Director for Operations Axel van Trotsenburg and Asean Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi said as much as $80 billion to $120 billion a year due to the failure to recycle plastics. This represented 95 percent of the packaging value of plastic products. In Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, more than 75 percent or $6 billion of the material value of recyclable plastic is lost every year when single-use plastic is thrown away rather than recovered or recycled, they said.

Ordinario, C. U. (2022, July 25). Asean states lose $80B-$120B yearly due to plastic waste. Business Mirror, pp. A1-A2.