GEORGE TOWN: Developed countries like the United States should take responsibility for their own waste and recycle them domestically rather than export them, Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) said.
Applauding the Ministry of Environment and Water (KASA) for being diligent in inspecting the suspected shipment of plastic waste from the US recently, SAM president Meenakshi Raman said a rich country like the US should have the capacity to manage its own waste.
"Shifting the responsibility of dealing with plastic waste to developing and under-resourced countries is injustice," she said today.
Yesterday, Environment and Water Minister Datuk Sri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man had said that the Department of Environment (DOE), in cooperation with other agencies, had conducted an inspection on two containers suspected to contain plastic waste from the US that arrived at Port Klang on March 27.
The inspection found that the waste in the containers was polyethylene plastic waste, and it was confirmed clean, homogeneous and in compliance with the criteria of B3011 Basel Convention.
B3011 are the types of plastic wastes that are presumed to not be hazardous, and as such, not subjected to the Prior Informed Consent procedure under the Basel Convention which requires the state of export to notify the state of import regarding the trans-boundary movement of the waste.
"We are glad to know that the Malaysian authorities were thorough in their inspection of these two containers.
"We hope that the same inspection procedure is carried out for all imports of plastic waste to Malaysia to prevent the dumping of dirty, mixed and contaminated plastic waste in our country," she added.
Malaysia, Meenakshi said, had been flooded with plastic waste since 2018, after China imposed its import ban beginning January 2018.
In fact, data of US waste exports indicated that in January 2021 alone, 9,800 tonnes of HS3915 plastic waste was exported from the US to Malaysia.
"We hope that the authorities had checked each container that came through our ports, not only from the US but other countries too, as not all would be as clean or homogenous.
"Our environment and communities were badly impacted due to the operation of illegal recycling plants, dumping and burning of plastic waste.
"Even now, communities are wary of plastic waste imports and call for the government to stop importing waste," she added.
According to Meenakshi, while the entire world is dealing with the bane of plastic waste, corporations and businesses that created the plastic problem need to quickly address the issue.
"Plastic recycling should not be used as justification for further plastics and single-use plastic production.
"We need to move towards zero waste." she stressed.