Britain sends more plastic waste to Southeast Asia despite clashes with local government

onebyone · Oct 11, 2020

Bales of household plastics were found kept in outdoor conditions that experts say make them hard to recycle - -/-
The UK this year has increased its exports of plastic waste to Southeast Asian nations already struggling under the weight of the western world’s rubbish, a new investigation by Greenpeace has discovered.

The findings, published by Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative unit, reveal significant spikes in scrap exports to Vietnam, which received more than 1,000 tonnes in the first seven months of 2020, and Malaysia, which saw a 81 per cent rise in British plastic, with 33,098 tonnes arriving during the same period.

Both countries have been waging tough battles against the widespread dumping of plastic garbage from around the world since China banned the import of waste from other countries in 2017 over concerns about environmental pollution.

Malaysia, now the UK’s second largest market for waste, has particularly suffered from overflowing dumpsites and environmental damage. In January, it announced it would be returning 42 containers of illegally imported waste back to Britain.

A joint 2018 investigation by the Telegraph and Greenpeace on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, found that British recycling and household rubbish had been openly discarded by waste companies at several locations, inflicting a toxic burden on local communities.

A flora lid is seen among the mountains of rubbish in a closed-down recycling facility next to a dump
Earlier this year, the organisation found hazardous substances and chemicals that are potentially detrimental to human health, including brominated flame retardants, cadmium and lead, at four known dumping sites.

The severity of the problem has led to warnings from Malaysia’s government that it will not become “a global dumping ground.”

The environment minister revealed this year that 150 containers of plastic waste had been shipped back to predominantly rich countries, including the United States, Canada, Spain and Portugal. The highest number of containers, 43, were transported to France.

But local environmental campaigners have stressed that the fight against the overwhelming influx of plastic waste will be long and hard if western nations continue to see Malaysia as an easy solution to deal with their own recycling and waste disposal problems.

The Ipoh site in Malaysia has begun to fill up with plastic since China banned the importing of foreign plastics
“Malaysia legally allows import of plastic waste by licensed local recycling companies. However, standards of operating, compliance with laws, monitoring and enforcement for breaches of environmental laws are still weak and the systems are not capable of their respective duties,” said CK Lee, a Malaysian environment activist.

“UK plastic is protecting its own, but killing our environment here legally and silently. This is the kind of ethics prevailing in the West today,” he told The Telegraph.

Nina Schrank, plastics campaigner at Greenpeace, said the British government had to step up its efforts to curb the trade in plastic waste.

“Britain is still trying to play pass the parcel with plastic. Let’s not forget this is plastic waste that is intended for recycling – instead it’s being dumped on other countries like Malaysia, whose own recycling infrastructure is already overwhelmed,” she said.

“This is adding to the plastic pollution problem that is already at crisis levels on a global scale.”

Recycling bags from the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham as well as Castlepoint council were found discarded in Malaysia
However, Simon Ellin, chief executive of the Recycling Association, argued that there was nothing wrong with “compliant export to Malaysia who have a significant demand for plastic raw materials.”

Compliant export was “healthy, and often circular,” he said, although he added that “a tiny proportion” of criminal behaviour dragged the rest of the industry down.

Despite a rise in exports to some developing nations, an analysis of government data shows that overall, the UK has sent 36 per cent less waste to non-OECD countries than last year.

“The UK government is a global leader in tackling plastic pollution and is committed to clamping down on illegal waste exports,” said a spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).

“We have pledged to ban the export of polluting plastic waste to non-OECD countries and to introduce tougher controls on waste exports, including mandatory electronic waste tracking which will make it harder for criminals to obtain and export waste illegally.”