Southeast Asia fights back against trash menace after West turned region into world’s dumping ground

The stench of curdled milk wafted from a shipping container of waste at Malaysia’s Port Klang as Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin told a group of journalists in May she would send the maggot-infested rubbish back where it came from.

Yeo was voicing a concern that has spread across Southeast Asia, fuelling a media storm over the dumping of rich countries’ unwanted waste. About 5.8 million tonnes of trash was exported between January and November last year, led by shipments from the US, Japan and Germany, according to Greenpeace.

“Typically, 70 per cent of a shipment can be processed, and the other 30 per cent is contaminated with food,” said Thomas Wong, manager of Impetus Conceptus Pte, a Singaporean company that shreds locally produced plastic waste before sending it to recycling mills in Malaysia and Vietnam. Contaminated trash is sent to incinerators and landfills for a fee, but some recyclers “just find a corner and burn it,” Wong said. “The smoke smells just like palm oil, so they hide in a plantation and light up at night.”

Greenpeace investigations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand revealed illegal recycling, open burning, water contamination and a rise in illnesses tied to pollution, the organisation said in an April 23 report.

When China banned imports in January 2018, it started a domino effect. Shipments were diverted to Southeast Asia, which soon became overwhelmed, forcing governments to take action.