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Indonesia becomes latest Southeast Asian country to return waste to the West

Published 06/17/2019, 07:26 PM
Updated 06/17/2019, 07:30 PM
Indonesia becomes latest Southeast Asian country to return waste to the West

JAKARTA, June 17 (Reuters) - Indonesia has sent back a
consignment of Canadian paper waste, imported via the United
States, because it was contaminated with material including
plastic, rubber and diapers, the environment ministry said.
Indonesia is the latest Southeast Asian country to send back
trash amid a spike in imports from Western countries after China
banned imports, disrupting the global flow of millions of tonnes
of waste each year.
Environment ministry official Sayid Muhadhar said by
telephone five containers, or around 100 tonnes, of waste had
now been sent back to Seattle from Indonesia's second-biggest
city of Surabaya.
"This is very simple. Indonesia does not allow imports of
trash," Muhadhar said.
"In Surabaya, what happened was we were supposed to get
paper scrap, but instead it came with other materials such as
plastic bags, rubber, plastic bottles, plastic pouches from
cooking oil and soap," Muhadhar said
The ministry did not name the company that had exported the
waste, but said it was the first time in around five years that
scrap had been re-exported.
"It's been happening more because China has shut down its
recycling facilities, so other countries have to look for new
places," said Muhadhar.
Last month, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his
government to hire a private shipping company to send 69
containers of garbage back to Canada and leave them within its
territorial waters if it refused to accept them.
Malaysia also said recently said it would send as much as
3,000 tonnes of plastic waste back to the countries it came
from.

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