We are not the world's trash: Malaysia sends back plastic waste containers

Penang, Ta. January 23, 2020, Thursday

Malaysia has repatriated 150 plastic containers filled with plastic waste to 13 countries, mainly rich since the third quarter of last year. At the same time, the country's environment minister has warned that people who want to make Malaysia the world's garbage must dream of it.

With 110 containers pending to be shipped from Belgium to the United States, including England and Japan, China has banned the import of plastic waste in 2018, sending waste-filled ships to Asia. Malaysia and other developing nations are fighting back against it. Malaysia's Environment Minister Yeo Bin Yin said that another 110 containers will be shipped by the middle of this year.

He said that with the successful repatriation of 3737 metric tonnes of waste, Malaysia is conducting strict scrutiny at major ports in the country to stop the smuggling of waste.

As well as over 200 illegal plastic recycling factories have been closed. Of the 150 containers shipped, 43 were from France, 42 from England, 17 from the US, 11 from Canada, 10 from Spain and the rest were from Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Portugal, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Lithuania. The Minister of Environment added that Malaysia did not spend any money to ship the waste ships back to their country of origin. This cost is incurred by shipping liners and importers.

During the inspection of the port in the north Penang state of the country, Environment Minister Yeo told reporters that if the world understood us as trash, we would dream of it. There are still 110 more garbage containers to be shipped to ports in Malaysia, including the US, Canada, Japan, England and Belgium.