This isn’t recycling - it’s relocation: How UK plastic waste is poisoning Southeast Asian communities

Here in the UK, 9.25 million tonnes of plastic waste leaves our dockyards and heads to developing countries. Why do we ship it off? Because the UK government wants to offload the responsibility of processing our plastic waste. However, this comes at the significant detriment of importing countries’ economies, environments, and health.

For three decades, China imported over 70% of the world’s plastic waste, but that all changed in 2018. In the eight years since China banned the vast majority of plastic waste imports, the market has shifted dramatically, and the UK’s plastic waste is being littered across the globe.

Southeast Asia is suffering the brunt of the UK government’s irresponsibility. Upon arrival in importing countries, plastic waste is mismanaged in three ways:

• Abandoned in large, unregulated dumps, where plastic is left to degrade and poison the surrounding areas.

• Dumped outside of locals’ homes for sorting and reselling.

• Burned for fuel, contaminating the food that locals eat and the air that they breathe.

Indonesia is one of the most recent Southeast Asian countries to say enough was enough, but the influx of plastic waste imports triggered by China’s ban in 2018 will be detrimental for generations to come. As we saw in 2018, plastic waste exports do not simply stop, rather they move elsewhere. There are growing concerns that Indonesia’s ban will lead to a sharp increase in plastic waste exports sold to neighbouring Malaysia.

The chain needs to stop at the source; the UK government must cease plastic waste exports. By exporting our plastic waste abroad, the UK upholds a system that is actively poisoning communities in Southeast Asia. It is time for the British government to take responsibility for minimising our production, use, and disposal of plastic, rather than continuing to put the health of other countries’ citizens at risk.

Read more about how our plastic waste has polluted Indonesian communities in the final Part Three of this series.

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For more information contact: info@scarabtrust.org.uk

Part One: Is rinsing out your yogurt pot pointless?

Images: cargo ship image - Image by minka2507 from Pixabay (St ref: 1384)

man hat jacket sitting dried leaves - Photo by Fiqri Aziz Octavian on Unsplash (ST ref: 1121)