I

f the world populace — especially Chinese and Indonesians — keeps littering the Earth with plastic waste, we might see more of the fossil fuel-based polymers swimming in our oceans than fish in the next 33 years.

That was what United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres warned of in his remarks during an Ocean Conference plenary meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

“Pollution, overfishing and the effects of climate change are severely damaging the health of our oceans. According to one recent study, plastic could outweigh fish, if nothing happens, in our seas by 2050,” he said.

Plastic debris was one of the main issues addressed in the UN’s maiden Ocean Conference.

It puts Indonesia in an awkward situation because the country holds the status as one of the main culprits yet must help lead the fight against marine debris.

China and Indonesia — the latter of which was appointed as a vice president of the conference — are the two biggest plastic polluters of oceans, according to UN General Assembly president Peter Thomson.

In a bid to encourage ASEAN members to join in the effort to reduce plastic waste, Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan hosted a lunch meeting with ASEAN delegates on the sidelines of the conference on Monday.

He previewed the forthcoming Summit Conference on Plastic Debris, which is set to be launched in Bali in September and attended by China, India, the United States, Russia, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and ASEAN countries.

“Marine plastic debris has caused US$1.2 billion in losses in the fisheries, shipping, tourism and insurance businesses. This could lead to a catastrophe if we don’t act urgently because unemployment may lead to poverty and social problems and eventually fuel radicalism and terrorism,” he said in a press statement.

US-based non-governmental environmental organization Trash Free Seas Alliance (TFSA) revealed that micro plastics — part of the 8 million tons of plastic that taints the oceans each year — have been found in 28 percent of the fish in Indonesia’s markets.

Attending the Ocean Conference, TFSA wants to reduce the plastics in oceans by half by 2025.

According to Luhut, Indonesia had so far cooperated with the World Bank, Denmark, and the US to conduct research on plastic levels in fish. He reiterated that global industries contributed heavily to plastic debris.

“Several research studies suggest that the plastic debris is also dumped by ships. It turns out that two thirds of the world’s plastic waste comes from the South Asia region,” Luhut said.

He further said that the ministry had conducted analysis and made several plans to deal with the marine debris, such as a massive public campaign against plastic littering, reduction in plastic production and usage, as well as controlling waste management facilities both on land and at sea.

Luhut claimed that at the regional level, the government cooperated with local administrations in waste management, urging them to control waste and prevent plastic from entering the ocean.

“On a national level, we launched a campaign to change the public paradigm about waste and looked to teach the younger generations, through the curriculum, about preserving the coastline,” he said.

Last year, Indonesia saw one of its measures on plastic waste reduction fail. Just eight months after a national policy requiring stores to charge for plastic bags was implemented, the government revoked the rule.

Responding to the marine debris issue, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti acknowledged that dealing with plastic debris was not an easy task as it must involve many parties from the national level to the local level.

“We have continued with the national campaign on the issue. However, local leaders must also take charge because the problem also lies on the domestic level. It is tied to people’s habits, attitudes and awareness,” she said.

At the Ocean Conference on Monday, the UN called for concrete steps for reducing pollution and plastic waste.

“I call for a change, from local and national initiatives, to an urgent, coordinated international effort […] Improving the health of our oceans is a test for multilateralism and we cannot afford to fail. I call on all member states to engage in the dialogue necessary to define a new model for the future governance of our oceans,” Gutteres said.