KL ships back plastic waste to France, Britain, Japan
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has shipped 150 containers of plastic waste back to more than a dozen countries including France, Britain and Japan, its environment minister said yesterday, pledging to not let the country become the world’s dumping ground.
The 150 containers, containing 3,737 tons of plastic waste brought into the country illegally, included 43 to France, 42 to Britain, 17 to the United States, 11 to Canada, 10 to Spain and five to Japan.
Malaysia has been grappling with an influx of plastic waste from abroad and began cracking down on it in 2018 after China imposed a ban on imports of plastic waste in January that year.
Yeo Bee Yin, the environment minister, said the 150 containers, found across the country’s three main ports, including Port Klang in Kuala Lumpur, were shipped out between the second half of last year and Friday.
“We just want to send it back. We want to communicate the message that Malaysia is not the dumping site of the world,” she told reporters at a press event at Penang Port in the northern state of Penang.
An additional 110 containers are in the process of being shipped back, 60 of which originated from the US, 15 from Canada and 14 from Japan.
Ms Yeo stressed that shipping costs have been borne by the importers or the shipping companies.
Malaysia toughened rules in July 2018, freezing the issuance of licences to set up plastic waste recycling plants and banning the import of plastic waste. It has shut down 218 illegally operated recycling plants across the country, while checking for smuggled plastic waste at seaports.