The Basel Action Network (BAN), the organization that first exposed the global dumping of electronic wastes in China (2002) and Africa (2005), and continues to campaign against the highly polluting and dangerous dumping for "recycling" due to waste exports from rich, developed countries, has launched an online whistleblowers portal.
Read MoreAfter receiving detailed alerts by the Seattle-based Basel Action Network (BAN), a global watchdog group working to prevent the dumping of toxic wastes by rich industrialized countries on developing countries, the Malaysian government announced yesterday that they detained 301 of the 453 intermodal containers BAN had identified in their alerts. Of these, 106 were found to contain illegal electronic waste (e-waste).
Read MoreOn January 1, 2021, the Basel Convention Plastic Waste Amendments, meant to curtail and control the dumping of plastic waste in developing countries, took effect. More than three years on, we are seeing little real progress in reducing plastic waste trade or addressing unsustainable waste recycling.
Read MoreAuthors: Alexandros Avramidis, Alexia Kalaitzi, Giorgos Christides
In collaboration with Greenpeace Greece and Basel Action Network, we put trackers on plastic waste from recycle bins and followed their path. Some turned up in landfills, while some was exported to the Balkans. In the end, many of the myths surrounding recycling were dispelled.
Read MoreAuthor: Lester Kong
PLASTIC pollution continues to plague Malaysia like a difficult-to-quit but easy-to-access opioid. It is still a convenient utility without compare, which leads to microplastics in the ecosystem – including in our food – and illegal dumping that clogs urban drainage and sparks flash floods. But an outright ban on plastics might not be a viable long-term solution either.
Read MoreAuthor: Robin Latchem
In ‘The Plastic Recycling Deception’, PT sets out practices it claims are deceptive employed by the plastic industry. It urges stakeholders to re-evaluate their approach to plastic waste management. For years, it insists, the plastic industry has promoted recycling as the solution to the world’s plastic pollution crisis. However, the report highlights that 91% of plastic is not recycled. The use of resin identification codes, often mistaken for recycling symbols, has further misled policymakers, regulators and consumers into believing in the circularity of plastic, it alleges.
Read MoreAuthor: Aliran
On 4 April, the Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4 Center) launched its latest report, “Ending waste colonialism, governing plastic pollution: Japan’s opportunity to lead Asia out of the plastic crisis”. The report highlighted waste colonialism in Malaysia caused by massive imports of Japan’s plastic waste. Since China banned solid waste imports in 2018, Malaysia has emerged as a global hub for plastic waste exports, with Japan being the leading nation exporting plastic waste to Malaysia.
Read MoreAuthor: Rajat Ghai
A whopping 220 million tonnes of plastic waste are set to be generated in 2024, a new study has shown. There has been a steady rise in plastic waste of nearly 10 per cent (7.11 per cent) since 2021. The global average plastic waste per person this year will rise to 28 kilograms. “Just 12 countries are responsible for 60 per cent of the world’s mismanaged plastic waste, the top five being China, USA, India, Brazil, and Mexico,” the Plastic Overshoot Day report released on April 11, 2024 by Swiss non-profit EA Earth Action noted.
Read MoreAuthor: Eva Riebeling
At the meeting of the EU Environment Council in late March, Denmark, France and Sweden spoke in favour of subjecting trans-border shipments of textile waste to the control procedures of the Basel Convention. This would make prior notification and consent obligatory for such deliveries. Exports of hazardous textile waste, such as material contaminated with chemicals or paint, should be banned altogether, the countries say.
Author: Ann Kühlers
British company Roydon Resource Recovery Ltd has been sentenced to pay a total penalty of nearly £870,000 (€1.01m) in connection with waste plastic exports improperly declared as green waste. At issue in the case were some 247 tonnes of refuse in ten shipping containers sent to Poland. The Manchester-based recycler claimed that the material was clean plastic sorted from household waste, but the shipments consisted primarily of plastics unsuitable for recycling, according to England's Environment Agency (EA), which brought the prosecution. The environmental enforcement body said that the material was also heavily contaminated with other household items including electrical equipment, nappies and oil canisters. The investigation led by the EA found that the waste was intended to be incinerated as fuel and there was no intention of it being recycled.
Read MoreAuthor: The Malaysia Insight
MALAYSIA has emerged as a global hub for plastic waste exports, with Japan being the top exporter of such rubbish, a report shows. Center to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) said in a report released yesterday that Japan exported 21.7 million kg of plastic waste per month to Malaysia in 2023. Since China banned solid waste imports in 2018, Malaysia has become an international hub for such waste, the report said.
Read MoreAuthor: Liew Yen Rou and Mikha Chan
PETALING JAYA: Japan severely underreported the export to Malaysia of more than 9,000 tonnes of plastic waste, including PVC, Basel Action Network (BAN) executive director Jim Puckett said. Puckett, whose organisation monitors plastic waste, highlighted that Malaysian authorities claimed to have only received 10 notifications for PVC waste imports from Japan last year.
Author: Beatriz Santos
Amazon generated more plastic packaging in the United States in 2022 than the year prior, a new report by Oceana, an ocean conservation non-profit, has revealed. The retail giant generated 208 million pounds (94,347 tonnes) of plastic packaging waste for all transactions in the United States in 2022, a 9.6% increase compared to 2021, according to Oceana’s estimates. Globally, on the other hand, Amazon reduced its use of single-use plastic packaging in shipping by 11.6% to 85,916 tonnes, according to the company’s 2022 sustainability report.
Read MoreAuthor: Justine Calma
Despite making pledges to cut down on plastic packaging, a new report from the nonprofit conservation organization Oceana estimates that Amazon’s plastic waste has continued to grow in the US. The company created 208 million pounds of plastic waste from its packaging in the US in 2022 alone, which Oceana says is enough trash to circle Earth more than 200 times in the form of plastic air pillows. That’s a nearly 10 percent jump from the amount of plastic waste it generated the year before, according to the report.
Read MoreAuthor: MalayMail
KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — South-east Asia remains a significant destination for illicit waste shipments, with Europe, North America, and Asia identified as the primary regions of origin, according to a new United Nations (UN) report. The report titled “Turning the Tide: A Look Into the European Union-to-Southeast Asia Waste Trafficking Wave” highlights that illegal waste is being diverted to countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, posing a significant challenge to the region.
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