Malaysia is sending trash back to the countries that created it

Malaysia has a special delivery on its way to the doorsteps of some of the richest and most wasteful nations in the world. These nations will most definitely recognize the “gift,” arriving in the form of “return to sender,” because it is their own trash.

The garbage, more than 3,000 tons, is being returned to the U.S., Australia, Japan and the U.K. It is mostly recyclable plastic, and is heading back home as a result of Malaysia’s decision to turn away waste it says is illegally dumped in the country.

“These containers were illegally brought into the country under false declaration and other offences which clearly violates our environmental law,” Yeo Bee Yin, minister of energy, technology, science, environment and climate change, told reporters this week.¹

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Malaysia is sending a bigger message accompanying the “special deliveries” they’re sending to some of the world’s wealthiest countries: There’s something rotten in the state of waste management.¹

“We are urging developed nations to review their management of plastic waste and stop shipping garbage to developing countries,” Yeo said. “If you ship to Malaysia, we will return it back without mercy.”¹

In reality, Malaysia is not the only country that has decided they will not be a dumpster for richer Western countries. Some countries, like the Philippines, pledge circumstances far more drastic than a returned shipment for international trash dumpers.

In fact, Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte threatened recently to declare war on Canada because of 1,500 tons of trash he stated was illegally dumped in his country.

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Evidently the waste, which was mostly household and electronic garbage, was earmarked for recycling when it departed Canada for the Philippines back in 2014. The trash, as well as the relations between the two nations, has only intensified since then.

President Duterte recalled the country’s diplomats from Canada and then marked all 69 containers, overflowing with electronics and household waste, “return to sender,” proclaiming to Canada:

“Celebrate, because your garbage is coming home,” he told local media. “Eat it, if you want to.”¹

The Philippines doesn’t have much sacred land reserved for landfills, and has trash burdens of its own. They have promised “to repay any future trash invasion with an invasion of its own – the old fashioned kind.”¹ In fact, a furious Duterte has stated:

“I will declare war”¹

The VERY REAL problem (besides countries inability to deal with their own garbage), as we previously reported, began when China decided to decline recyclable waste from other countries, including the United States. The country had, for decades, welcomed with open arms garbage from abroad as reprocessing it was a profitable endeavor.

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China was the world’s top importer of trash. When they closed their doors it left many countries quickly over-flowing with waste. Think about it – up until January more than 7 MILLION tons of recyclable waste seemed to disappear overnight from the shores of these countries, and floated off to China.

Because of China’s decision, the U.S. has been BURNING, instead of recycling, expanding amounts of plastic.

Countries like the U.K., Canada and Australia had been shipping their waste to smaller Asian countries that were eager to fill the void left by China, Malaysia and the Philippines.

It appears that now, however, even those smaller nations have had enough.

The solution is not burning plastic waste or shipping it to smaller, less developed countries so they can turn a profit until their landfills are full. It is easy to see how that scenario doesn’t play out well for our world. The answer is, quite simply – we ALL need to use much less (or NO) plastic. 

SOURCE:

• MNN