What Asean can do about waste

Photo: Greenpeace Malaysia

IN January 2018, the world’s biggest importer of scrap plastic, China, imposed a country-wide ban on importing plastic waste, effectively halting the export of plastic waste to China. With China out of the picture, developed nations and regions shipped their plastic waste to South-East Asian nations, taking advantage of lax environmental regulations in the region.

Malaysia’s imports rose to about 110,000 tonnes per month following China’s ban (according to Greenpeace) and plastic waste imports tripled to 11,900 tonnes from 2016 to 2018 in the Philippines (according to news site Rappler). Thailand’s plastic waste imports increased by almost 2,000% and there was a significant increase in plastic waste in Vietnam as well (according to Greenpeace’s news site Unearthed).