Malaysia will return 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste to countries including the US, Canada and Saudi Arabia, amid a broadening clampdown on imports of improperly labelled rubbish across south-east Asia.
Yeo Bee Yin, environment minister, said the country would return the shipments of contaminated plastic rubbish — non-recyclable or low quality plastic — to avoid the “dumping” of waste in Malaysia from the rest of the world.
“Garbage is traded under the pretext of recycling,” she said. “Malaysians are forced to suffer poor air quality due to open burning of plastics which leads to health hazard, polluted rivers, illegal landfills and a host of other related problems.”