The containers were dumped last month in the port of Tanjung Pelepas, in Johor state, Bernama reported Sunday. Inside were 1,864 tons Electric Arc Furnace Dust (EAFD), a dangerous by-product of steel production, containing toxic elements such as lead and chromium.
They were brought into the country from Romania and falsely declared as concentrated zinc, authorities said.
“The discovery of the EAFD, in transit in Malaysia and destined for Indonesia, is the largest such discovery in the history of Malaysia,” Environment and Water Minister Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man said in the Bernama report. .
Malaysia is sending the waste back to Romania and requesting Interpol to investigate.
Since China banned imports of plastic waste in 2018 in an attempt to clean up its environment, many countries have sought alternative landfills for their trash, creating problems for countries like Cambodia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
To limit irresponsible dumping, last year 187 countries were added plastic to the Basel Convention, a treaty that regulates the movement of hazardous materials from one country to another. But the problem has continued independently.
EAFD, the illegal shipment found in Malaysia, is classified as a toxic waste under the Basel Convention, of which Malaysia is a signatory. Only the United States, one of the largest plastic producers in the world, and Haiti have not ratified the agreement.
Global garbage crisis
The waste dumping crisis has attracted greater global attention in recent years as countries like Malaysia and the Philippines have begun to name and embarrass waste exporters and to send dumped waste to their ports of origin.
“We urge developed countries to review their management of plastic waste and stop sending garbage to developing countries,” said Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia’s then minister of energy, science, technology, environment and climate change.
But the problem has persisted; Malaysian authorities have already identified and stopped at least 28 attempts to illegally import waste this year, Tuan Man said according to Bernama.
The dumping of waste has even turned into highly publicized diplomatic clashes; Last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte withdrew his ambassador in Ottawa after Canada missed a deadline to recover tons of trash. The Canadian government finally repatriated its trash after Duterte said it was prepared to “declare war” on the matter.
Many of these governments, as well as non-profit and environmental organizations, praised the 2019 Basel Convention amendment as a step in the right direction. He specifically addressed the issue of plastic waste, a major concern for health and environmental experts.
Most types of plastic are not biodegradable and are extremely durable. That means the plastic products made today are likely to persist for centuries, if not millennia, according to the Basel Convention site. Over time, some products decompose and add to the vast collections of microplastics in our seas, air and food.
The garbage industry has also created an increase in unlicensed plastic recyclers. Last year, Malaysian authorities found at least 148 unlicensed recycling factories that pollute local communities with toxic fumes and contaminate bodies of water.
When investigators searched one of those factories in the rural town of Jenjarom, they found tons of plastic from abroad: a wrapper for Connecticut’s Spring Spring bottled water, a bottle of Palmer’s cocoa butter formula made in New Jersey. and a bag of Metcalfe Skinny Popcorn packed in the UK.
A new amendment to the Basel Convention, which will enter into force in 2021, will allow only clean, homogeneous and easily recyclable non-halogenated polymers to be freely marketed worldwide.
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