PLASTIC WASTE. A member of the media takes pictures of containers filled with plastic waste before shipping back to the country of origin in Port Klang, west of Kuala Lumpur on May 28, 2019. Photo by Mohd Rasfan/AFPwill be shipped back to where it came from, Malaysia said Tuesday, May 28, insisting the country did not want to be a global dumping ground.
China had previously taken a large amount of waste for recycling, but abruptly stopped last year, saying it wanted to improve its own environment."We urge developed countries to stop shipping garbage to our country," said Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia's minister of energy, technology, science, environment and climate change, adding it was"unfair and uncivilized."
Plastic imports to Malaysia have tripled since 2016, to 870,000 tons last year, official data showed. Yeo vowed a crackdown on illegal imports and recycling facilities and called Malaysians involved in importing the scraps"traitors."