Greenpeace probe: foreign plastic waste left toxic aftermath in Malaysia

The illegal dumping and burning of British and other foreign plastic waste has left a toxic legacy on Malaysia’s soil and water which could be harmful to the local population, a new Greenpeace investigation has found.

The organisation’s alarming report, The Recycling Myth 2.0, reveals that hazardous substances and chemicals that are potentially detrimental to human health were found at four dumping sites in Selangor state, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, and the northwestern state of Kedah.

The findings come two years after a joint probe by Greenpeace and The Telegraph found that British recycling and household waste had been openly discarded or by waste companies at several locations around the Southeast Asian country. 

“This report exposes how we are inflicting a poisonous and toxic legacy on innocent communities living on the other side of the world,” said Louise Edge, Greenpeace plastics campaigner.

In 2018, at a hidden dumping site in Jenjarom, Selangor, where a putrid smell rose up from charred garbage and mosquito-ridden black pools of water, Telegraph reporters found evidence that foreign plastic materials had been illegally burned.

Fishermen tending commercial prawn ponds next to the landfill claimed plastic waste had been incinerated there several times a month and suspected stocks had dwindled because of toxic fumes that had made them feel sick.

Their claims echoed reports from fishery farm bosses that rivers were being polluted by illegal recycling factories and stocks were dying. Meanwhile, local residents complained of choking nightly fires at dumpsites that woke them with pungent fumes that caused dizziness and shortness of breath.

The glut of illegal recycling factories in the area have since been forced by the authorities to close, but the new Greenpeace report, based on a 2019 investigation, adds more scientific weight to fears about long-term damage to health and the environment from unregulated sites that were only superficially cleaned.

Results from samples of material covering large areas of the ground at sites in which plastic waste was burned, showed the presence of shredded plastic which contained brominated flame retardants.

It also revealed high concentrations of heavy metals such as cadmium and lead, which can accumulate in the body over time and has the potential to cause damage to the nervous system and development in children over long-term exposure.

Water sampling of surface waters from nearby riverbanks and canals contained chemical contaminants such as phosphorus-based flame retardant (TPPO) as well as metals and metalloids such as antimony, nickel and copper.

Heavy metals and chemicals found in a fish pond close to one dumpsite were so “alarming” that it was “imperative that further investigations” were immediately conducted by the authorities to ensure that the food chain was not contaminated, said the report.

While the sites investigated contained mixed foreign waste, the team stressed that the UK was among the top countries exporting plastic waste to Malaysia and the likelihood of the dumps containing British garbage was high.

Malaysia became the biggest importer of UK plastic waste after China’s ban on importing the products in 2018 because of concerns over environmental pollution. Countries like the United States, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany and many other European nations also began to divert their plastic scrap there.

In 2019, Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia’s then environment minister, said the country would no longer be the “dumping ground” for the world’s plastic waste, and pledged to send back non-recyclable and contaminated plastic scrap to its origin countries. Illegal recycling factories were raided and closed. 

Greenpeace has called on the Malaysian government to clean up contaminated sites and do further investigations on the impact of plastic pollution. Telegraph questions to the environment ministry remained unanswered at the time of publication.

The UK’s legal plastic exports to Malaysia have dramatically dropped since 2018 - from 37,158 tonnes in January-March 2018 to 13,977 tonnes in the same period this year.

But Greenpeace’s Louise Edge said the UK had to stop behaving like a “long-range fly-tipper” and eradicate “offshoring” the plastic waste problem altogether, focusing instead on reusing packaging.

An Environment Agency spokesperson said:  "We are working hard to stop illegal waste exports from leaving our shores in the first place – last year we prevented over 12,500 tonnes of waste that might have been illegally exported from reaching ports, and inspected nearly 1,000 shipping containers.

“Anyone found guilty of exporting waste illegally can face a two year jail term and an unlimited fine.”

But Greenpeace also warned that unscrupulous recyclers in Malaysia were disguising or misdeclaring imports under different customs codes in an attempt to bypass customs officers who did not have the capacity to check thousands of containers passing through the country’s ports every day.

CK Lee, a local environmental activist who campaigned against illegal operations in Jenjarom, said many underground factories were still operating secretly in less densely populated areas.

“We suspect they are now operating illegally in remote areas away from sight because this is a very profitable business and our enforcement is still weak,” he said. “Pressure is still there for the industry to raise its ugly head again.”