Malaysia to launch plan for enforcement of plastic import rules

0
120

Following the repatriation of 150 containers of illegal plastic waste, the Malaysian Government has announced that it will launch its National Action Plan for Enforcement Import of Plastic Waste.

This plan will focus on commodity code HS3915 and will aim to standardise enforcement activity procedures by Government departments, customs agencies, ports, the Solid Waste Management Corporation and Public Cleansing authority and other agencies.

Advertisement

It will be led by the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC).

This follows the repatriation of 150 containers of illegal plastic waste. Of these 43 were from France, 42 from UK, 17 from United States, 11 from Canada, 10 from Spain, 9 from Hong Kong and 5 from Japan.

Other countries receiving containers were Singapore, Portugal, China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Lithuania.

The total weight of illegal plastic within the containers was 3,737 tonnes and Malaysian authorities said that the material did not meet the criteria of legal exports under the Basel Convention.

MESTECC minister Yeo Bee Yin said: “The Malaysian Government takes the issue of illegal entry of plastic waste into the country very seriously, and will take appropriate action to ensure that Malaysia does not become the home of barbaric trash from around the world.

“MESTECC will continue to fight cross-contamination boundaries including plastic waste for the benefit of the people and the sustainability of the country.”

Malaysia announced in November the repatriation of these 42 containers to the UK and the Environment Agency said at the time that it was working with Malaysian authorities to return them to the point of origin in the UK.

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.