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Reuters

Malaysia, which has become the dumping ground for the world’s plastic waste, will send back non-recyclable plastic scrap to the developed countries that sent it there, its environment minister said on Tuesday.
Malaysia last year became the leading alternative destination for plastic scrap after China banned imports of such waste, disrupting the flow of more than 7 million tonnes of plastic scrap a year.
Dozens of recycling factories cropped up in Malaysia, many without an operating licence, and residents complained of environmental damage.

Most of the plastic scrap coming into the country is contaminated and low-quality plastic from developed countries that is non-recyclable.
Now Malaysia has begun sending back the waste to its country of origin, said Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia’s minister of energy, technology, science, climate change and environment.
“Developed countries must be responsible in what they send out,” Yeo said.




She said some of the plastic scrap sent to Malaysia was in violation of the Basel Convention, a UN treaty on the trade of plastic waste and its disposal.
Malaysia has already sent five containers of contaminated plastic waste that was smuggled into the country back to its source, Spain, Yeo said.
Now China refuses to be dumping ground for the world’s waste, where on Earth will it all go?
The minister did not identify the smugglers but said an investigation was ongoing.
More non-recyclable plastic will be sent back to its source next week, she said.




Malaysia’s imports of plastic waste from its 10 biggest source-countries jumped to 456,000 tonnes between January and July 2018, versus 316,600 tonnes bought in all of 2017 and 168,500 tonnes in 2016. More recent data is not available.
The United States, Britain, Japan and Australia are among the top exporters of plastic waste to Malaysia.
The toxic trail of e-waste that leads from the US to Hong Kong
Plastic unsuitable for recycling is burnt, which releases toxic chemicals into the atmosphere. Or it ends up in landfill, potentially contaminating soil and water sources.
Around 180 countries reached a deal on Friday to amend the Basel Convention to make global trade in plastic waste more transparent and better regulated, while also ensuring that its management is safer for human health and the environment.




The US, the world’s top exporter of plastic waste, has not ratified the 30-year-old pact.
The amendments to the treaty will further limit the flow of plastic scrap to developing countries, said Yeo, who added it was unfair of the developed world to dump their waste on developing countries such as Malaysia.
“The amendment of the Basel Convention is the first step in solving the global problem of unjust rubbish movement from developed to developing countries,” the minister said.


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Environment

‘Developed countries must be responsible’: Malaysia to send some non-recyclable plastic waste back to where it came from

Plastic waste outside an illegal recycling factory in Kuala Langat, Malaysia. Photo: Reuters

This picture taken on March 8, 2019 shows plastic waste at an abandoned factory in Jenjarom, a district of Kuala Langat, outside Kuala Lumpur. - From grubby packaging engulfing small Southeast Asian communities to waste piling up in plants from the US to Australia, China's ban on accepting the world's used plastic has plunged global recycling into turmoil. (Photo by Mohd RASFAN / AFP) / TO GO WITH Environment-waste-Malaysia-China-Australia, FOCUS by Sam Reeves and Poornima Weerasekara

‘I’ll sail to Canada and dump their garbage there’: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatens ‘war’ over waste dispute

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte speaks after his arrival at Davao international airport in September. Photo: Reuters

(FILES) In this file photo taken on March 07, 2019 (FILES) In this file photo taken on March 07, 2019 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks to the media at the national press gallery in Ottawa, Ontario. - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on April 5, 2019, warned of the risk of interference by Russia in Canadian parliamentary elections scheduled for this fall. "We've seen over the past number of years an increase in the interference or the implication of foreign actors in democratic processes," Trudeau told a news conference in Toronto. (Photo by Lars Hagberg / AFP)

A tsunami of plastic waste is about to be unleashed on the world, because China will no longer be the West’s rubbish dump

China’s decision to stop importing about half the world’s scrap looks set to collapse the recyclables market and have profound implications for household recycling schemes around the globe

This picture taken on May 11, 2018 shows a scrap collector steering his tricycle loaded with plastic and paper waste through the streets of Shanghai. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Johannes EISELE

This photo taken on May 19, 2018 shows a stuffed toy of the Sesame Street character "Elmo" surrounded by plastic waste on a beach on the Freedom island critical habitat and ecotourism area near Manila. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Noel CELIS

This photo taken on May 12, 2018 shows a dog looking out onto a garbage-filled creek in Manila. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Noel CELIS

This picture taken on May 11, 2018 shows a scrap collector sorting plastic waste at a garbage dump in Shanghai. About eight million tonnes of plastic waste are dumped into the world's oceans every year - the equivalent of one garbage truck of plastic being tipped into the sea every minute... of every day. Over half comes from five Asian countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, according to a 2015 study in Science journal. / AFP PHOTO / Johannes EISELE

This picture taken on May 16 shows a man packing plastic bottles at a plastic waste centre on the outskirts of Beijing. Photo: AFP

China’s waste ban has rocked the recycling world and revealed Hong Kong’s dire record. What next for the city’s rising mountains of trash?

Experts say the city desperately needs to recover, recycle and reduce the use of plastic as the export market for waste product dries up. But others believe the solution must go beyond recycling, and that science will save us

Environmental group The Green Earth press conference on plastic bottle waste at The Sparkle in Cheung Sha Wan. 20APR16 SCMP/ Felix Wong

HILLSBORO, OR - OCTOBER 30: Compressed blocks of plastic waste, which will no longer be accepted for recycling by China at seen at Far West Recycling October 30, 2017 in Hillsboro, Oregon. For decades, shipping containers have been loaded with American scrap and waste and dispatched to China for recycling. But, the Chinese government is cracking down, and will no longer allow shipments of much of the mixed plastic and paper Americans throw in to recycling bins. The result of the ban may be more plastic in American landfills. Natalie Behring/Getty Images/AFP

Secretary for the Environment, Wong Kam-sing attends the RTHK Radio programme and talks about Producer Responsibility Scheme on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WPRS) at RTHK Radio Station in Kowloon Tong. 04AUG18 SCMP / Felix Wong

(L to R) Professor Jonathan Wong Woon-chung, Department of Biology of Hong Kong Baptist University; and local designer So Real Real (Adrian So), pose for a photograph with sustainable consumption cardboards in Wan Chai. 18AUG16 SCMP / Bruce Yan

A general view of West New Territories Landfill in Nim Wan, Tuen Mun. 13OCT13

Students of La Salle College working on Solid Waste Reduction Project at La Salle College in Kowloon Tong. 30MAR17 SCMP / K. Y. Cheng

The West New Territories Landfill at Nim Wan in Tuen Mun. Photo: Edward Wong

Philippines plastic pollution: why so much waste ends up in oceans

The Philippines is the world’s third-largest ocean polluter despite a waste management act coming into effect 18 years ago. The culprits? Corruption, lack of political will – and an addiction to single-use plastic sachets

Handout image shows Froilan Grate, executive director of the Philippines branch of the grass-roots Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives.

[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]

Handout image shows sachets that are disposed of in an un-environmentally way, in the Philippines. 

[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]
 
CREDIT: Break Free From Plastic Movement

PWAMBN Single use plastic detergent sachets are a common household product used throughout the Philippines.More apparent in communities of the poor where lar

[19OCTOBER2018 FEATURE]

CREDIT: ALAMY

Handout image shows candles, and general plastic waste along the shore in the Philippines.

[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]
 
CREDIT: Break Free From Plastic Movement

M1CYNH A Filipino woman tends her local sari-sari store, neighborhood convenience store, in Barretto, Luzon, Philippines.

[19OCTOBER2018 FEATURE]

CREDIT: ALAMY

Handout image shows Von Hernandez, one of the PhilippinesÕ most influential environmental activists and global coordinator of the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Movement.
 
[18CTOBER2018 FEATURES]
 
CREDIT: Break Free From Plastic Movement

This photo taken on May 12, 2018 shows Perigrina Santos, 81, collects the clothes before the rain beside a garbage filled creek in Manila. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP)

[18OCTOBER2018 FEATURE]

CREDIT: AFP / Noel Celis

Volunteers cleaning general plastic waste along the shore in the Philippines, which is behind only China and Indonesia in the amount of its discarded plastic that ends up in the ocean. Photo: Break Free From Plastic

Hong Kong becomes a dumping ground for US e-waste, research finds

E-waste from the United States is ending up in the New Territories. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

News

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Southeast Asia

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World

Malaysia last year became the leading alternative destination for plastic scrap after China banned imports of such waste
Most of the plastic scrap coming into the country is contaminated and low-quality plastic from developed countries that is non-recyclable


‘Developed countries must be responsible in what they send out,’ said the country’s environment minister.


‘Developed countries must be responsible’: Malaysia to send some non-recyclable plastic waste back to where it came from

Malaysia last year became the leading alternative destination for plastic scrap after China banned imports of such waste Most of the plastic scrap coming into the country is contaminated and low-quality plastic from developed countries that is non-recyclable

Malaysia last year became the leading alternative destination for plastic scrap after China banned imports of such waste

Most of the plastic scrap coming into the country is contaminated and low-quality plastic from developed countries that is non-recyclable