Waste exported from the UK for “recycling” has been discovered in several landfills here in Malaysia, according to a special report by British news outlet The Telegraph.
Reporters from The Telegraph and Unearthed, Greenpeace’s investigative unit, found bales, including an envelope with an address in the North of England, Morrisons’ milk cartons and supermarket carrier bags outside a waste facility in West Malaysia.
While consumers believe that such segregated waste is recycled, this latest discovery demonstrates that this is not done.
“Many of the shopping items seen had use-by dates within the next year or two and the letters displayed recent date stamps, which suggests the waste has recently been sent to the sites,” said the report.
Although the items bore the recyclable logo, it was learned that many of the items could not be processed because they were likely contaminated during the sorting or shipping process, or because they had been left outside.
Empty recycling bags from five UK councils — Kensington and Chelsea, Hammersmith and Fulham, Castle Point, Basildon and Tower Hamlets — were also found in a recently closed-down factory immediately alongside one dump site.
Checks later resulted in two of the councils denying that any of their waste was shipped to Malaysia and two others said they used licensed contractors who were regularly inspected, leading to more unclarity as to how the bags bearing the councils’ logo arrived in the country.
At Telok Panglima Garang, near Jenjarom, the reporters found evidence of foreign plastic materials being burnt at an open landfill site, situated next to commercial prawn ponds, that was being blamed for dwindling stock due to toxic fumes.
“It is not clear how the waste ended up over 6,000 miles from Britain. It is illegal to send waste that cannot be recycled outside the UK,” said the report.
Recently, concerns for Malaysia’s environment has heightened following reports that the country was the top destination for plastic waste from the UK and becoming among the world’s top plastic dumpsites after China banned such imports for fear of environmental contamination.
Reuters reported earlier this year that annual imports of plastic scrap into Malaysia jumped to 450,000-500,000 tonnes in 2017 from 288,000 tonnes in 2016.
Malaysia subsequently announced a blanket freeze on new licences for any new recycling factories and revoked many others.
The article also raised questions into the number of recycling plants operating illegally. The Kuala Langat council’s head of enforcement Nordila Yasir said that out of 54 recycling factories in the area, only 14 were licensed.
“We first received complaints about the illegal factories on April 25. The complaints were about the pollution of air and water. We cut the utilities on their operations. Only one is still operating,” he said quoted saying.
However, the shutting down of such factories does not address the greater problem of the sheer volume of waste leading to fears is that the waste will end up being burned and creating more pollution.
Authorities here are aware of the issue and are scrambling to address the problem.
Original article from https://www.malaymail.com/s/1685326/report-recyclable-waste-from-uk-found-dumped-here?fbclid=IwAR2scL_H7e_H0GeyLdfQ6in_sC0_8tG1UQdCEZJfpkLUiABftgxjSgosSqw
