"Oliver grew up in southwestern Germany. As a child, he played in the forests until they were replaced by junkyards. After that, he played in the dirt surrounded by broken washing machines, discarded TVs and piles of plastic waste. Today, Oliver is 57 years old and he has had it with plastic pollution. “When I came here there was no plastic. Maybe a little bit in Yangon, but in the villages, you would never see plastic. There was no snack industry besides soft drinks, which had just made their way into the country. But the soft drink bottles went back to the factories to be refilled.” The global plastic revolution found its way to Myanmar 15 years ago, Oliver said. Before that most food was wrapped in bamboo or leaves from banana and betel nut trees. When Oliver arrived in Myanmar, he said, you would find clay pots full of water in front of every other house, eliminating the need for bottled water. “To do good is to donate water,” he says. “If the people of Myanmar could find their way back to their traditions, the country’s plastic problems would be solved immediately. In Dawei, I once met a 93-year-old local woman who was cooking tasty food. She never used plastic. Why would she need plastic to eat and cook now?”..."