As several Southeast Asian countries tighten restrictions on the import of "foreign garbage", more and more Asian countries are raising their environmental awareness and taking legal measures to "say no" to the garbage trade.

Restrictions on the import of "foreign garbage"

In recent months, several Southeast Asian countries, including Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, have tightened restrictions on the import of "foreign garbage" and have returned batches of containers filled with waste to developed countries such as the United States and Canada, refusing to become a "garbage dump" for developed countries.

In May 2019, Malaysia shipped 450 tons of contaminated plastic waste back to Australia, Canada, Japan, the United States and other places. Malaysian Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Climate Change and Environment Yeo Bee Yin said, "We urge developed countries to stop shipping garbage to Malaysia."

In June, after six years of negotiations and protests, the Philippines shipped 69 containers full of garbage from the Subic Bay Freeport back to Canada. In 2013, a Canadian company shipped containers marked as recyclable plastics to the Philippines. However, the cargo actually contained paper, plastic, electronics and household waste, even kitchen waste and diapers.

In July, the Cambodian government intercepted 70 containers of plastic waste from the United States and 13 from Canada at Sihanoukville Port. Cambodia's Ministry of Environment said Cambodia does not allow the import of any type of waste for reprocessing.

In late July, Indonesia returned seven containers of illegally imported garbage to countries and regions such as France, and another 42 containers of garbage were waiting to be shipped back to the United States, Australia and Germany. Previously, Indonesia returned five containers of garbage from the United States in June. Indonesian officials said the authorities will tighten the plastic waste import policy, including requiring garbage exporters to register first and strengthening border inspections to ensure that Indonesia will not become a garbage dump for developed countries.

Also in July, Sri Lankan customs ordered 111 garbage containers that had been abandoned at the Colombo Port for two years to be shipped back to the United Kingdom. Local customs officers found dangerous goods, medical waste and human organs in this batch of illegally imported garbage.

Environmental awareness forced out

In recent years, more and more Asian countries have tightened their garbage import policies, indicating that environmental awareness in Asian countries is improving. However, this awareness is forced out.

Developed countries generate huge amounts of garbage, and the per capita garbage generation is much higher than that in developing countries. A recent survey released by Verisk-Maplecroft, a global risk and strategic assessment company, shows that the United States accounts for about 4% of the world's population, but its total urban solid waste generation accounts for 12% of the world's total. In contrast, the total population of China and India accounts for about 36% of the world, while the total urban solid waste generated by the two countries accounts for only about 27% of the world's total.

Faced with the increasing amount of garbage, Western developed countries have begun to actively seek ways to deal with it. For them, automated technology and cheap labor cannot meet the growing demand for garbage disposal. Even if incinerators and landfills can handle some of the excess waste, it costs more than $200 million to build a new incinerator, and supervision is gradually banning landfills. Therefore, dumping garbage in other countries has become the simplest and fastest way to deal with it.

With the development of the shipping industry, the garbage market has emerged in developing countries. Some recycling plants purchase waste plastics from abroad, process them into commodities for sale or export. However, the garbage recycling capacity of developing countries is insufficient, far less than the production of garbage. In addition, there are toxic and hazardous garbage that cannot be recycled in the imported garbage, which has caused the coastal areas of Asia, Africa and Latin America to become garbage dumps of developed countries.

According to a report published by the World Bank, only 10% of the garbage exported by developed countries to low-income countries is actually recycled and processed. 90% is burned or abandoned in illegal landfills, causing environmental pollution, and also creating sources of infectious diseases, causing lung diseases among local residents or death of animals and plants.

According to data recently released by the Sri Lankan Ministry of Finance, Sri Lanka imported nearly 3,000 tons of garbage, and less than one-tenth of the garbage was recycled and re-exported, which means that more than 90% of the garbage remains in Sri Lanka and deteriorates the local environment and water resources.

Improve the domestic and foreign legal framework

While tightening the garbage import policy, some countries are incorporating the Basel Convention and its amendments into their domestic laws and plan to revise their Customs Regulations and Environmental Laws.

As early as the late 1980s, the international community formulated the Basel Convention with the purpose of protecting the environmental interests of developing countries. The convention fully confirms that countries have the right to prohibit foreign hazardous wastes and other wastes from entering their territory.

The revised Basel Convention in May 2019 also included important pollutants such as plastic waste in the import and export restrictions, reached an agreement on the global management mechanism of plastic waste, and included plastic waste in a legally binding framework, thus making a milestone decision in the global prevention and control of plastic waste pollution.

According to statistics, about 6.3 billion tons of waste plastics have been generated worldwide since 1950. The most common disposable plastic waste includes plastic bottles, bottle caps, food packaging, plastic bags, etc. A UN report pointed out that as many as 5 trillion plastic bags are used every year in the world. If they were spread out one by one, they would be enough to cover two France.

The UNEP news briefing stressed the urgency and importance of preventing and controlling plastic waste pollution, saying that plastic waste is recognized as one of the most pressing environmental problems in the world and has now reached the severity of global rampant spread. It is estimated that there are 100 million tons of plastic waste in the world's oceans, of which 80% to 90% comes from land. Reducing the generation of plastic waste at the source and improving and strengthening waste management thereafter will greatly help solve this problem.

However, it has been proven that in the face of capital pursuit of waste trade, it is not feasible to rely solely on the "consciousness" of developed countries.

As one of the countries with the largest trade exports in the world, the United States is not a party to the Basel Convention. Despite this, the United States still attended the meeting as an "observer" because basically all of the current waste export destinations of the United States are parties to the Basel Convention, so this amendment will inevitably have an impact on the United States' waste exports. The United States has also become the only country to oppose the amendment.

Sri Lankan Finance Minister Mangla said that although the Basel Convention prohibits the export of hazardous waste, Sri Lanka's Customs Regulations also stipulate that such crimes will be fined three times the value of the goods. However, such penalties are still not enough to deter. Sri Lanka urgently needs to amend relevant laws and investigate how illegal garbage enters the country. (Legal Daily reporter in Sri Lanka Li Yazhoujun)

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