UK Agrees To Take Back 42 Illegal Plastic Waste Containers That Were Sent To Malaysia

The government is taking serious measures to combat this issue, especially after Greenpeace dubbed Malaysia as “the world’s rubbish bin”.

According to Bernama, the UK has agreed to take 42 containers of illegal trash back to their country.

The decision is in accordance with the Basel Convention following a recent visit by the UK’s Environment Agency (EA) in response to the news of the illegal shipment of plastic waste from Britain.

The containers, which arrived at the Penang Port between March 2018 and March 2019, were marked illegal as they failed to comply with the necessary import papers.

“The British High Commission’s proactive action of working closely with the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (Mestecc) in repatriating 42 plastic import containers in Penang Port is highly commendable,” Minister Yeo Bee Yin said in a joint statement with the Commission.

“This co-operation signifies a recognition that plastic pollution is a global issue which requires commitment from various countries to address the problem.

“We hope the co-operation and understanding between Malaysia and United Kingdom will set an example for other countries with companies exporting contaminated plastic waste to other developing nations.”