Malaysia plans to return tons of plastic waste to rich nations
PORT KLANG, MALAYSIA — Malaysia will send back some 3,300 tons of nonrecyclable plastic waste to countries such as Austrialia, Canada and the United States in a move to avoid becoming a dumping ground for rich nations, Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin said May 28.
Yeo said Malaysia and many developing countries in Southeast Asia have become new targets after China banned the import of plastic waste last year.
The Philippines said it would ship back dozens of containers of garbage that officials said were illegally shipped to the country from Canada in 2013-2014.
Yeo said 60 containers stacked with contaminated waste were smuggled in en route to illegal processing facilities in Malaysia and will be sent back to their countries of origin.
Ten of the containers are due to be shipped back within weeks, she said, as she showed reporters contents of the waste at a port outside Kuala Lumpur.
The items included cables from the United Kingdom, contaminated milk cartons from Australia and compact discs from Bangladesh, as well as bales of electronic and household waste from Canada, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
Yeo said the waste from China appeared to be garbage from France and other countries that had been rerouted after a ban imposed by China.
In one case, Yeo said a U.K. recycling company exported more than 55,000 tons of plastic waste in about 1,000 containers to Malaysia over the past two years.
“This is probably just the tip of the iceberg (due) to the banning of plastic waste by China,” Yeo said. “Malaysia will not be a dumping ground to the world we will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we can’t be bullied by developed countries.”
On Thursday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad called the practice of advanced countries sending non-recyclable waste to poorer countries “grossly unfair.”
“We don’t need your waste because our own waste is enough to give us problems,” he said while visiting Japan, a major producer of plastic waste.
Japan, which used to send its waste to China, now ships some of it to other countries, including Malaysia.
Malaysia has clamped down on dozens of illegal plastic recycling facilities that had mushroomed across the country, shuttering more than 150 plants since last July. In May, the government also sent back five containers of waste to Spain.
“Please remember that when you pollute one part of the world you pollute the rest of the world also,” Mahathir said.
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to forcibly ship back dozens of containers of garbage to Canada, and his government recalled its ambassador and consuls in Canada over Ottawa’s failure to comply with a May 15 deadline to take back the garbage.
A cargo ship arrived in a northern port Thursday to pick up and return 69 containers to Canada.