KUALA LUMPUR: Three countries have agreed to take back 89 containers of plastic waste detained at seaports, at no expense to Malaysian government.
"We already know where the country is from and we have contacted the ambassadors," said Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change (MESTECC) Yeo Bee Yin.
"So far, three countries have verbally agreed to take back the plastic waste, at no cost to us.
"We expect the documentation process to take up to six weeks. The procedure is complicated and very complex in accordance to the Basel Convention," the minister added.
She was speaking to reporters after officiating at the launch of the new brandname MCIS Life owned by MCIS Insurance Bhd here today.
Apart from Port Klang, Yeo said MESTECC officials had found containers containing plastic waste at Penang Port and seaports in Sarawak.
Yeo said MESTECC was determined to stop illegal importation of plastic waste because Malaysia is not a dumping ground for foreign trash.
China used to receive the bulk of scrap plastic from around the world but closed its doors to foreign refuse last year in an effort to clean up its environment.
Huge quantities of waste have since been redirected to Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia and to a lesser degree the Philippines.
"We find that some quarters in the industry is pressurising the government to auction these illegal plastic waste cheap or eventually give it to them free," Yeo said.
"That is not going to happen. Malaysia has and will continue to return the plastic waste.
"We're doing this because we want to stop the illegal importation. If we succumb, these plastic waste will continue to enter illegally," she said.
Todate, Yeo said the authorities at Malaysia's seaports had been ordered to block entry of illegal plastic waste and the parties bringing them in must pay the repatriation costs to the countries of origin.
Since June, Yeo said 21 containers of plastic waste at Port Klang and Penang Port had been shipped back to Spain, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.