Author: 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.

Author: 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.

Author: 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.

Author: 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.

Author: 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.

Author: 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.