I’m an optimist. For better or for worse, it’s who I am. My default position is that there’s always a solution to every problem.

I’ve applied that all my life to the issues I’ve faced personally and professionally, and I’ve also always had faith that there’s no issue at a societal level that’s so large that humankind’s ingenuity won’t solve it when the motivation and/or financial incentive becomes strong enough.

But one of our experiences on this trip has shaken that sense of optimism to its core. And that’s the issue of plastic waste.

In the west, we all know it’s a problem. Occasionally, we take a trip to the beach and shake our heads sadly when we see the odd piece of litter or plastic debris washed up. If we’re good, rather than just walk past, we’ll pick it up. It’s been rare indeed that Jen and I haven’t come home from a bush walk or trip to the beach over the last few years in Australia without a pocket or bag full of other people’s rubbish to be disposed of.

And we’ve all read or heard about the fact that the oceans are filling up with plastic, and something needs to be done.

But I’m here to tell you this. The problem is unspeakably large. And until this week, I had come to the conclusion that the problem was unsolvable.

Sailing in SE Asia has brought this to life in ways that it pains me to write about. Almost every beach we have been to in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand is strewn with plastic rubbish. Not just the odd piece, but a line at the high water mark stretching the entire length of the beach which is usually 15-30cm high and at least a metre deep. Occasionally it’s a bit less, and you can bag it up, but usually there’s so much that it is utterly pointless trying to collect it. A typical beach would have dozens of garbage bags full.

As we sail along the coast, the waters are strewn with plastic bags, bottles and rubbish. At anchor, if you jump off the boat for a snorkel, it’s rare not to see some plastic floating past you.

Why?

Because many of the countries we’re talking about simply do not have an organised garbage service outside of their biggest cities. I’m not talking about recycling even – I’m just talking about basic garbage removal.

If you’re the government of Indonesia, your most pressing problems are health, education, raising taxes in a sole trader economy dispersed through 17,000 islands, and large scale infrastructure, all while dealing with regular disaster relief efforts due to earthquakes, tsunamis and flooding. Organising a garbage service is a LONG way down the list of priorities.

And if you’re one of the people living in a small village community, putting food on the table, and getting access to basic healthcare are your number one priorities. And then education for your children in the hope they might have a better life. So what to do with mountains of plastic rubbish just doesn’t cross your mind. It gets tossed in the pile along with everything else.

Probably 75% of all the plastic we see is water bottles, and ultimately, it’s the fault of rampant consumerism in the west of course.

For millennia, society got by just fine without plastic. But the advent of cheap and lightweight plastic allowed the major food and beverage manufacturers to dramatically reduce the cost of bottling and distribution, and with these decreased costs, penetrate third world markets to the point of total dominance.

Governments in this part of the world also see bottled water as a major opportunity – they know that clean drinking water helps to combat disease and addresses some of the most fundamental health issues they’re faced with. So they heavily subsidise bottled water for the public as it allows them to provide clean water without the cost of major infrastructure.

The West is beginning to act, with bans on single use plastic beginning to spread, and we’re even seeing the very first stirrings of practical changes here in SE Asia, with some supermarkets banning plastic bags, and the big fast food outlets removing straws and plastic lids. It’s a start.

But in truth I’ve been struggling to see how any of this will make a tangible difference to the enormous volume of plastic we’re seeing by the roadside, in the sea, and especially on the beaches in third world countries.

Long ago, I reached the conclusion that major change, of the sort required to make the kind of impact required here, needs to happen from the top down.

The use of plastic bags in Australia is a great example of this.

For 20 years or more, we have known that it was “a good thing” to reuse our plastic bags, or even better, use enviro bags instead. And I, like many others, made a token effort to do so. The boot of my car had about 15 enviro bags in there, and probably about 50% of the time, I used them. But sometimes I’d forget to bring them from the car into the supermarket, or I’d leave them at home, or I didn’t have the car with me.

For so many reasons, my good intentions frequently came to naught. And I know I was not alone.

All of this changed in July 2018 when Coles and Woolworths banned single use plastic bags. There was an outcry at the time, with some commentators even suggesting the economy would be damaged as people would purchase only what they could carry. But of course, the doomsday crowd were wrong as always.

People adjusted just fine. There was an 80 per cent drop in single use plastic bags, and it’s estimated that in the first year of the ban, over 3 billion fewer plastic bags have been used in Australia alone.

So if I believe that real change needs to come from the top down, does that mean that I absolve the individual from the responsibility to do something?

Not at all.

I think individual action serves several important purposes. Firstly, role modelling is critical to educate and influence not only children and teenagers, but also those for whom the environment is far from their thoughts or priorities. In Malaysia, for example, almost every drink is served with a straw. If it’s take-away, it will also be served in a plastic bag, even when the drink is in a plastic bottle itself.

We, and most other westerners, regularly say no straw, no bags, and bit by bit, community expectations shift. Most restaurateurs and stall holders here now understand, and even anticipate, that we’ll be asking for no plastic. And these types of actions help to prepare the way for government action by slowly shifting the “norm”.

Most importantly, individual action also sets the tone for government and large corporates. Never has this been more obvious than in the case of gay marriage in Australia (and indeed most other parts of the world). And increasingly, we’re beginning to see it in the case of the environment, with the most notable impact of recent times the amazing Greta Thunberg and the voice she has given millions of children around the world.

As I have been writing this blog over the last couple of weeks, suddenly, my sense of optimism has started to return. I have begun to see how several current trends and initiatives, brought together smartly, could actually make the kind of difference we need to see.

What’s been the catalyst for this new-found optimism? I got to meet some local heroes of mine, and realised that the amazing, small-scale environmental project they’re working on, has the potential to grow exponentially.

The Sea Monkeys are a family of four who left Australia several years ago on their sailboat to sail around the world. Along the way, they, like me, became dismayed at the amount of plastic waste they were encountering.

But unlike me, they decided to do something about it. They found online the open-source blueprints for a small-scale plastic recycling machine – the kind of machine that can be installed in any town or village in the third world and allow the villagers to monetize their plastic waste.

Suddenly, disposing of plastic – for so long a problem – has become a potential revenue stream. And importantly, the project is set up as a social enterprise, so every party that is involved at every step along the way has the opportunity to make money.

You can read about their awesome idea and how it is succeeding in the real world here.

I’ve been following the family and their efforts online for a few months, and when we bumped into them this week at Tioman Island, I ended up at a cruisers dinner sitting next to them. As the conversation flowed, I started to see a way to harness the incredible passion they have, especially personified in their daughter Sydney, to really grow their project.

In particular, I’ve started collaborating with them to explore how we can build partnerships between schools here in SE Asia with their counterparts in Australia, and harness the strong motivation, energy and passion that today’s students have to solve tomorrow’s environmental issues.

As I noted in my opening paragraph, great solutions come when there is sufficient motivation or financial incentive.

In this case, I believe both exist, and I’ve started to find just a little window for my optimism to crawl through.

In the meantime, if you fancy doing your bit to contribute to less plastic in the ocean, you could always buy a turtle.

This post is one of a series of 10 insights and learnings from the first 12 months of our circumnavigation. Click here to see the full list and access the other posts.