Letters | End Hong Kong’s shameful role in illegal plastic waste trade

Name: China’s New Year’s resolution: bans on plastic straws, plates, non-biodegradable plastic bags
Uploaded: 2021-01-10T22:55:06.000Z
Duration: 1 min 50 s
Description: China’s New Year’s resolution: bans on plastic straws, plates, non-biodegradable plastic bags

New guidelines might not be able to prevent the United States, Hong Kong’s largest source of imported plastic waste and the only developed country which has not ratified the Basel Convention, from using the city for re-export of plastic waste

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

An officer stands next to a container full of illegal imported plastic waste in Batam, Indonesia, in July 2019, when the country returned seven shipping containers of such waste to France and Hong Kong. Southeast Asia has been a hotbed of illicit plastic waste trade since China enacted a ban on “foreign waste”. Photo: AFP

Letters

Published: 6:55am, 11 Jan 2021Updated: 6:55am, 11 Jan 2021

One after another, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia in 2019 condemned Hong Kong for shipping unwanted and contaminated plastic waste to their shores. The same year, 284 tonnes of waste were sent back to Hong Kong, and it is suspected that most of this ended up in our landfills.

Hong Kong has played a pivotal role in the global unscrupulous waste trade, in the transshipment of plastic waste from developed countries to mainland China for many decades. As China has banned “foreign waste” from entering the country since 2018, Hong Kong has shifted its waste trade destinations to other places in Southeast Asia.

According to the UN Comtrade database, Hong Kong was the second-largest source of plastic waste for Vietnam and Thailand and the third-largest for the Philippines in 2019. The main reason for exporting plastic waste from developed to developing regions is for cheap disposal or burning, as the cost is much lower than disposal or treatment at home. However, this beggar-thy-neighbour approach has severely damaged the environment and public health.

The Environmental Protection Department and customs officials have failed to halt the illegal plastic waste trade that led Hong Kong to stand shamefully in this regard. Interpol published a report last August in which Hong Kong was named as one of the leading offenders. In 2019, for example, Malaysia imported seven containers of plastic waste which were originally exported from Belgium but covered up as re-exports from Hong Kong aimed at saving the huge transport costs for the illegal traders.

To combat the illegal plastic waste trade, 180 countries ratified new rules under the Basel Convention last year. Those rules came into effect this month.

01:50

China’s New Year’s resolution: bans on plastic straws, plates, non-biodegradable plastic bags

Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department has formulated new guidelines and references which require proper declaration for import or re-export of regulated waste plastics. Yet, these guidelines might not be able to prevent the United States, Hong Kong’s largest source of imported plastic waste and the only developed country which has not ratified the convention, from using Hong Kong for re-export of plastic waste.

Select Voice

Choose your listening speed

Get through articles 2x faster

1.25x

250 WPM

Slow

Average

Fast

00:0000:00

1.25x

.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Letters | End Hong Kong’s shameful role in illegal plastic waste trade

Letters | End Hong Kong’s shameful role in illegal plastic waste trade