Original article: Estidotmy
Did you know that Malaysia will be facing the risk of severe plastic pollution in the near future? This is because the plastic waste that drifts away can damage the ecosystem and sea products that we consume.
Every Malaysian throws away approximately 2.29 kg of plastic waste that is non-biodegradable and they are being thrown into the ocean. To make matters worse, Malaysia is the fifth country in the world that throws the most plastic waste into the ocean.
As the saying goes, “you reap what you sow”, actions today will have an impact tomorrow. Our nonchalant attitude towards the environment will lead to destruction in the future.
There is no doubt that plastic is one of the most important materials in the product manufacturing industry. This material is widely used to this day. However, we also have to be aware of the impact of plastic use and disposal on our lives.
That is why, there have been a few efforts being made by countries including Malaysia to reduce the disposal of plastic waste. One of the effort is the collaboration between plastic manufacturers with Ocean Bound Plastic (OBP) to recycle plastics that’s been collected along the shoreline to avoid the waste being thrown into the sea. Besides that, the Malaysian Department of Irrigation and Drainage also has the responsibility to regularly maintain the waste trap structure such as log boom and gross pollutant trap (GPT).
However, the disposal of plastic waste in the ocean still proves difficult to control. In addition, the community still lacks the knowledge about the effects of plastic waste pollution. The amount of plastic waste that is produced is increasing out of hand.
This situation increased our worries as researchers from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) who are trying to control plastic waste pollution. With this, we will try to solve this issue through a project under the UKM Translation Grant (TR-UKM) sponsored by the UKM IDEA Centre.
Based on our observations, the process of controlling the plastic waste pollution becomes difficult due to the lack of information or up-to-date and accessible databases of the polluted area. Involvements of scientists or researchers in gathering information on the disposal of plastic waste is insufficient. The lack of time and small workforce limits our effort to gather information. Therefore, we need the community to join hands to contribute the plastic waste disposal data.
Next, UKM researchers have initiated a citizen scientists program involving individuals from various backgrounds to contribute information regarding plastic waste via Machine Learning for Mitigating Litter web application system, or ML2. These citizen scientists refer to individuals involved in gathering information and scientific research.
The role of citizen scientists in utilizing ML2 web application systems is vital to detect the location of plastic waste in an area. They can take pictures of plastic waste in their surrounding areas. Next, the collected data in the ML2 web application will become online information about plastic waste. The data is also accessible publicly. At the same time, citizen scientists can pick up litter in the areas while collecting data for the web application.
Images of plastic waste that have been contributed by citizen scientists will undergo a detection process using machine learning techniques to identify the types of plastic. Location tagging features using coordinates or geotagging can identify areas that are polluted. With machine learning, ML2 can determine the plastic waste information such as the quantity and types of plastic and polystyrene in a specific area.
Machine learning also enables computer systems to learn predetermined data and improve machine intelligence. ML2 will use pictures of plastic waste and garbage that have been classified according to plastic waste class to carefully classify an object such as plastic waste according to categories. Over time, this machine learning can increase the effectiveness of ML2 in contributing information about plastic waste disposal.
Communities have the chance to use this web application system in the field while contributing latest data regarding the plastic pollution situation. Public citizens can access plastic waste information in ML2 via this link. The scanning system that was developed by our cross-disciplined team is able to detect and determine the plastic waste with over 80% accuracy.
Through this research, UKM has worked actively with industry partner, Impactlution in organizing a program to collect and classify plastic waste into categories whether they can be recycled or not. We are trying to apply the Open Science approach in this research as an innovation in solving the increasing pollution of plastic waste in Malaysia.
This activity is enhanced with the existence of community science programs that also contribute information by taking photos of plastic waste using ML2. This approach can educate individuals to be more responsible with the plastic waste used.
It is feared that science activities may interfere with and delay with data collection if users are not skilled in using the application system. However, with adequate training, high quality information can be collected and large sample sizes can be achieved by citizen scientists.
Through this project, researchers have collaborated to ensure the success of scanning systems and plastic waste collection in an area using machine learning in ML2 application. The involvement of individuals called citizen scientists in collecting data has contributed to a variety of plastic waste data that can be a public reference. Furthermore, the information that is constantly updated will open the eyes of various parties to care more about the importance of keeping the environment clean.
This application system ML2 enables communities and researchers to collaborate to contribute information in managing plastic waste optimally. Hopefully the technological innovation in identifying and detecting the plastic waste will be a trusted reference source and able to be used by various parties.
With this application, it is hoped that government agencies or public citizens can take the steps in managing plastic waste effectively. Indeed, even the smallest contribution of energy and time of each individual in reducing plastic waste will contribute to a cleaner and more beautiful environment.
