Return to sender: Take your trash back

INDONESIA has shipped tons of Australian garbage out of the country, an official said yesterday, as Southeast Asian nations push back against serving as dumping grounds for foreign trash.

Eight containers of trash — weighing some 210 tons — left Indonesia’s second-biggest city Surabaya on Monday aboard a cargo ship bound for Singapore, the local customs agency said.

The move comes less than a week after Australia pledged to stop exporting recyclable waste amid global concerns about plastic polluting the oceans and increasing pushback from Asian nations against accepting trash.

Last month, Indonesia said it would return the Australian rubbish after authorities found hazardous material and household trash, including used diapers and electronic waste, in containers meant to only hold waste paper.

“Six containers contaminated with (hazardous) waste and two containers mixed with household rubbish” left Indonesia on Monday, said Alvina Christine Zebua, a spokeswoman for the East Java customs agency.

She could not confirm when the containers might arrive back in Australia.

Last month Indonesia returned seven shipping containers of illegally imported waste to France and Hong Kong Special Administration Region that were seized in Batam Island near Singapore.

Those containers were loaded with a combination of garbage, plastic waste and hazardous materials in violation of import rules. Batam authorities were also preparing to return another 42 containers of waste, including shipments from the US, Australia and Germany.

(AFP)