Malaysia is now a major alternative destination under China's ' foreign waste ' ban, Reuters reported October 25.
In the first 7 months of this year, the country imported nearly 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste from the top 10 sources of ' ocean waste '.
However, the government is worried about the large amount of plastic waste and the exhaust emissions from burning plastics, but the rejection of these ' foreign waste ' means refusing to value billions of of the business, which is difficult for the Malaysian government.
Screenshot of Reuters report
The report said hundreds of bags of plastic waste from the United States, Britain, South Korea, Spain and other countries were stacked on the streets of the industrial zone in the Malaysian island of Malaysia. Invista Island is just an hour's drive from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital, and is home to Malaysia's largest port. In Malay, invista means ' beautiful island ', but in recent months, as Malaysia has become the preferred destination for plastic scrap exporters around the world, numerous illegal plastic recycling plants have appeared in Malaysian towns, including the island of Invista.
The stench of burning plastic, unloaded plastic waste flooded the island. The reason for the surge in the country's ' ocean waste ' is linked to China's ban, which quickly became the main alternative destination for the ' foreign waste ', the report said.
In the first 7 months of this year, the country imported nearly 500,000 tonnes of plastic waste from the top 10 sources of ' ocean waste '.
Malaysia has opened dozens of plastic recycling plants to dispose of the waste, but many of them do not have a business license and use low-end waste disposal technology, which can cause pollution to the environment, Reuters said. In the INVISTA industrial zone, Reuters saw nearly 12 recycling plants, many of which had no signs or company names.
Government data show that only two factories in the area have permits to import plastic waste.
According to official notices, the larger of the plants were shut down in August this year because they were not licensed, but workers at the plant and nearby residents said the plant was reopened within weeks.
A dump in Malaysia is pictured from the ' Unearthed ' website
Zuraida Kamaruddin, Malaysia's minister of Housing and Local government, said authorities had found 41 factories operating illegally in Zuleda, near the island, and about 30 had been shut down by authorities in the past three months.
' The situation is getting worse, especially with the growing number of illegal plastic recycling plants, ' said Yang Meixia, the Malaysian Minister of Energy, Science, technology, climate change and environment.
She said she did not want Malaysia to be a ' trash bin ' for developed countries.
Another problem, though, is in front of us-money. Juleda told Reuters that the Malaysian government does not want to miss a business that could be worth billions of.
Both ministers are members of a government committee that is looking at how to deal with the growing number of plastic waste.
Yang Meixia estimates that the plastics recycling industry will bring 3.5 billion ringgit (about 5.8 billion yuan) of revenue to Malaysia this year. Juleda said she planned the government would soon introduce rules to make it harder for waste disposal plants to obtain import permits, saying: ' I understand recycling plastics is quite profitable. So I was also wondering if we should miss this economic opportunity. This is the question that the Committee will be looking at.
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Malaysian Minister of Energy, Science, technology, climate change and environment, Yang Meixia, from Malaysia's ' Thestar ' website The Daily Mail 22nd, citing Greenpeace's environmental media ' unearthed ', reported that the UK's plastic waste exported to Malaysia rose about 3 times times in January-April compared with the same period last year, according to the Royal Tax and Customs administration.
Malaysia has replaced China as the first country to receive British plastic waste.
Malaysia jumped to 456,000 tonnes of plastic waste imported from its 10 largest sources in the first 7 months of the year, compared with 316,600 tonnes for the full year of 2017 and 168,500 tonnes in 2016, Reuters said.
In the face of increasing ' foreign waste ', the Malaysian government has also taken steps to curb it. On July 24 this year, the country's minister of Housing and Local government, Zuleda, announced that it would freeze the issuance of plastic waste import permits for 3 months now, and the Guanghua Daily reported in September that Malaysia had been collecting 15 ringgit per tonne (about 25 yuan) from October 23 this year.
) Import duties on plastic waste. Zuleda pointed out that after the end of the freeze period for the issuance of import licences for plastic waste, the regulations on the application for permits will be strengthened to make the relevant departments strictly and easily supervised.
Among them, the imposition of import duties is one of the measures.