Indonesia returns containers of waste to France, Hong Kong
Indonesia has returned seven shipping containers of illegally imported waste to France and Hong Kong, an official said Tuesday. It's the latest move by a Southeast Asian nation to send rubbish back to its wealthy places of origin.
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The containers were loaded with a combination of garbage, plastic waste and hazardous materials in violation of import rules, according to customs officials on Batam Island,Β near Singapore.
"The containers left on Monday and some officials were there to see the ship depart," head of local custom office Susila Brata told AFP on Tuesday.
Earlier, customs spokesman Sumarna told AFP that five containers were destined for Hong Kong and two were headed back to France.
Authorities were still waiting for clearance to return another 42 containers of waste at the port, including shipments from the United States, Australia, and Germany.
Jakarta has stepped up monitoring of imported waste in recent months as part of a push back against serving as a dumping ground for foreign trash.
Two weeks ago it announced it was sending more than 210 tonnes of garbage back to Australia.
Sri Lanka also returning waste
Last week, Sri Lanka ordered the return of container loads of hazardous mortuary and clinical waste illegally imported to the island from Britain under the cover of metal recycling.
Customs officials said the racket dating back to 2017 was uncovered after the Colombo port complained last week that an importer had abandoned 111 containers which were emanating a huge stink.
A total of 241 containers had been imported since 2017 and 130 of them had been taken to a free-trade zone ostensibly for recycling and re-export, customs spokesman Sunil Jayaratne told AFP.
"We are taking immediate action to order the re-export of the 111 containers abandoned at the port," the official explained.
He said the 130 containers were stuffed with used mattresses and plastic and clinical waste imported in violation of international laws governing the shipping of hazardous material.
A Sri Lankan businessman who imported the containers would be liable for criminal prosecution if he failed to re-export them back to Britain.
Mangala Samaraweera, an official at the finance ministry, which is responsible for the customs department, said it would take up the issue with British authorities for exporting hazardous cargo without first checking if Sri Lanka was willing to accept it.
China closes its doors
For years China received the bulk of scrap plastic from around the world but closed its doors to foreign refuse in 2018 in an effort to clean up its environment.
Huge quantities of waste have since been redirected to Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia and to a lesser extent the Philippines.
Global concern over plastic pollution has been spurred by shocking images of waste-clogged rivers in Southeast Asia and accounts of dead sea creatures found with kilos of refuse in their stomachs.
Around 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), with much of it ending up in landfills or polluting the seas, in what has become a growing international crisis. WWF says that if nothing is done, by 2050 there will be more plastic in oceans than fish.
(with newswires)
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