After being listed among Asia's worst ocean polluters, green group WWF has urged Malaysian authorities to limit single-use plastics.
Thomas Schuldt, WWF's coordinator of work on a plastic circular economy, highlighted how it was time to introduce regulation on limiting single-use plastics and work with companies to fund a recycling push.
Malaysia outranked China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, in terms of annual per-capita plastic packaging consumption, at about 16.8 kg per person. Thailand stepped in at second with 15.5 kg.
The WWF report showed that the countries contributed 60 per cent of the estimated 8 million tonnes of plastic that enter the world's oceans each year. It found that 27 million tonnes were consumed across all six nations in 2016.
It added that the volume of plastic waste going into the ocean globally is set to quadruple between 2010 and 2050.
Scottish National Party (SNP) veteran John Swinney was elected as its new leader on Monday and is set to replace Humza Yousaf as Scotland's first minister after he emerged as the sole contender in the contest to pick a new premier.
Israel's military carried out airstrikes in Rafah on Monday, residents said, hours after Israel told Palestinians to evacuate parts of the southern Gaza city where more than a million people uprooted by the war have been sheltering.
Russia said on Monday it would practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what Moscow said were threats from France, Britain, and the United States.
The death toll from rains in Brazil's southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul rose to 83, local authorities said on Saturday morning, while dozens still have not been accounted for.