Academy award-winner Swe Zin Htike (Auntie Grace), singer Zwe Pyae, fashion icon Ma Pont, stylist and actor Ma Gyi San, and model-turned-actress Mya Hnin Yee Lwin are the latest champions of the national campaign to raise awareness of plastic pollution in Myanmar. These celebrities star in five public education video clips produced by Thant Myanmar in partnership with the European Union in Myanmar. The 1-min cinematic clips explain how plastics hurt the environment and people’s health. Filmed at different locations in Yangon, they depict everyday situations in Myanmar where disposable or single-use plastics are used and where they end up after. The actors present terrifying statistics on plastic pollution in Myanmar to underscore the longterm impact of plastics while offering sustainable alternatives. Their message is simple: “Let’s stop using plastic.” Speaking at the launch of the videos at Pansuriya Gallery in Yangon, H.E. Kristian Schmidt, Ambassador of the European Union to Myanmar said, “You might think: ‘What can I do to change a global problem? What difference can one single person make?’ It is in the hands of each and everyone of us to put an end to plastic pollution. If we do not change our own habits, our daily routine, our thoughtless convenience, plastic pollution will not go away and we will continue to choke in plastic waste.” The EU’s support to the plastics pollution awareness campaign in Myanmar, such as the celebrity videos and the events leading up to World Environment Day, is in line with the EU Plastics Strategy that also aims at strengthening global cooperation in fighting plastic pollution. Myanmar’s Irrawaddy is the 9th most polluted river in the whole world. It is estimated that about 200 tons of plastic or the equivalent of 100 large garbage trucks of plastics flow through Myanmar rivers and into the world’s oceans every day.
“We use around 20 million plastic bags every day in Yangon. Most everything comes in plastic bags that are thrown after one use. That’s why we see plastic waste everywhere – our streets, in the river and beaches, even around our beautiful pagodas and monasteries. But we can all be part of the solution by simply using less plastic items, recycling more, and choosing more eco-friendly alternatives,” says May Thet Htwe from Thant Myanmar.
