Malaysian Government Shutdowns all Unlicensed Plastic Recycling Plants

After China’s decision to ban the import of plastic scraps, the affected countries approached Malaysia to dump their plastic waste. This paved a way for the Illegal recyclers to enter Malaysia.

Malaysia dumped with world’s plastic scrap:

Malaysia imported more than 456,000 tonnes of plastic waste from its top ten exporters in the first seven months of 2018 which is huge in volume, when compared to the previous years (2017 and 2016). The United States which is the world’s top exporter of plastic waste has sent nearly 178,000 tonnes to Malaysia. This huge import by illegal recyclers with less recycling capabilities filled Malaysia with plastic waste.

The Emergence of Illegal Recyclers:

According to the report by the Malaysian government, “a large number of unlicensed plastic recyclers are operating throughout the country. Most of the illegal plastic recyclers were found to be from foreign countries. And some of them were found to be importing container full of illegal plastic waste. The unlicensed operators make use of low standard technology for plastic recycling and pollute the environment very badly.”

The Impact of illegal plastic import:

The Developed countries separate their waste and recycle the high-quality plastic and sent low graded contaminated plastics to the developing countries. These waste are accepted by unregulated operators for processing. After the improper processing of plastic scrap, the polluted fluids are passed into water bodies like creeks and rivers. Also, a huge quantity of plastic scrap is put into the fire which in turn created toxic fumes that affected several thousands of people.

MESTECC shutdowns the Unlicensed Recycler Plants:

The Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC) of Malaysia Yeo Bee Yin led a raid in the month of January 2019 and closed many unlicensed recyclers. As of the inspection made till now, out of 300 scrap recycling plants, 148 were found to be Illegal recycling plant. This initiative made by the Ministry will prevent Malaysia to become the destination for dirty plastic waste.

The Minister leads the Mission:

MESTECC in collaboration with some of the government agencies and port’s operating companies opened up the containers at the port of Klang and found that the unwanted materials were mixed up with the plastic scraps. In order to avoid the unlicensed recyclers back into operation, the Minister Yeo Bee Yin has instructed the local authorities to cut off the power supply and water supply to their plant. She also mentioned that the 400 legal plastic recycling plants around Malaysia which will be monitored twice a year.

Malaysia to introduce Bio Bags:

According to the report from MESTECC, Malaysia plans to stop the usage of single-use plastic by 2030. The complete ban of single-use plastics will be managed by introducing alternate bags called ‘Bio Bags’. The bio bags will be produced by Malaysia from the resins of palm oil. By analyzing all these scenarios the chance of plastic waste import into Malaysia will gradually get stopped. This will make plastic scrap exporters like the US and Western Countries to look for other countries to dump their plastic scraps.