Malaysian minister Yeo Bee Yin blasts importers of illegal waste, vows to return 450 tonnes of rubbish to likes of US, Japan

Malaysia will send back 10 shipping containers of contaminated plastic waste illegally shipped from countries including the United States and Japan, according to environment minister Yeo Bee Yin, who labelled the local importers who allowed the rubbish in “traitors” to the nation’s sustainability.

“Malaysia won’t continue to be a dumping ground for the developed nations and those responsible for destroying our ecosystem with these illegal activities are traitors,” Yeo on Tuesday told reporters. “We will fight back. Even though we are a small country, we will not be bullied.”

Australia, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh are the other countries to which the 450 metric tonnes of refuse – which included milk cartons, plastic packaging, household waste and e-waste such as compact discs – will be returned.

A container from China, Yeo said, had originated in France, but was diverted to Malaysia after China banned imports of plastic waste last year.

Yeo said her Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change ministry would continue to clamp down on containers brought into the country under “false declarations”.

“Garbage is traded under the pretext of recycling,” she said. “Malaysians are forced to suffer poor air quality due to open burning of plastics which leads to health hazards, polluted rivers, illegal landfills, and a host of other related problems.”

Ministry officials will also be inspecting another 60 containers containing 3,000 metric tonnes of waste that are expected to be shipped back following a “laborious and costly” process to determine their contents and exporting country.

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Malaysia has, to date, inspected over 120 containers from countries such as Norway, France, Britain, Japan, Australia and Germany.

The Southeast Asian nation on April 29 turned away five containers of waste from Spain as part of a nationwide crackdown on the influx of imported contaminated waste, which has also seen the closure of nearly 150 illegal plastic recycling facilities.

According to the ministry, the containers were filled with contaminated, low-quality, non-recyclable plastic waste and were en route to processing facilities that lacked the means to recycle these materials in an environmentally sound manner – a violation of Malaysia’s laws.

The country has been grappling with foreign waste ever since China – which previously imported over half the world’s waste – put in place its National Sword policy in January 2018 banning the importation of certain types of waste.

Although China still processes plastic, paper and scrap metal from other countries for reuse in other products, under the new policy it has turned away shipments containing unsorted or the wrong type of recyclables, low quality materials or recyclables mixed with trash.

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Its ban resulted in Malaysia becoming one of the de facto dumping grounds for this sort of waste. Nearly 500,000 tonnes of waste arrived in the country in the first half of 2018 alone, some of which was smuggled in. The illegal waste trade also spawned a number of fly-by-night recycling plants that were not properly equipped to process these materials.

Malaysia is not the only country to grapple with this issue – plastic waste imports into neighbouring Vietnam, the Philippines and Thailand also leapt during this same period, leading to open burning and dumping, and subsequent environmental damage, water contamination, and respiratory illnesses.

But those countries are pushing back. Manila has said it will return 25 tonnes of trash to Hong Kong and has recalled its ambassador to Canada after Ottawa refused to take back 100 containers filled with 2,500 tonnes of household waste, including used adult diapers and plastic containers.

The garbage will be returned to Canada on May 30, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jnr said in a tweet.

Bangkok, meanwhile, has banned the imports of more than 400 types of e-waste.

Mageswari Sangaralingam, research officer at the Consumers Association of Penang and Friends of the Earth Malaysia, said although the government’s action came late, it was a “much-needed signal to the world that the Malaysian government is serious in ensuring that we do not become a dumping ground”.

“Plastic waste traders are trying to find a way around import restrictions imposed by the Malaysian government,” she said. “As many countries have imposed bans or restrictions following China’s ban, they are looking for loopholes or falsely declaring their consignments. We will be deluged with foreign waste if nothing is done.”

Andrew Sebastian, chief executive of the Eco-tourism & Conservation Society Malaysia, praised environment minister Yeo for her leadership and firm stance.

“This is an important issue, and just the tip of the iceberg. It will get worse before it gets better, as these containers are only what have been discovered so far,” he said.

“It’s not right for these countries to ship their rubbish here. Malaysia has its own plastic pollution and dumping issues that we have not yet fully begun to deal with. We shouldn’t have to deal with imported rubbish as well.”