【By Observer News, Wang Kaiwen】At a time when the Trump administration launched a trade war around the world, another "trade war" was quietly taking place, but this time, the protagonists were discarded plastic bottles and candy wrappers.

"The United States exports a large amount of plastic waste overseas, but Malaysia has refused to accept it." According to reports from U.S. media such as The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, Malaysia has banned the import of plastic waste from countries such as the United States since July 1st, and this ban has left the major waste exporter, the United States, in a dilemma.

Reports stated that since China began to prohibit the import of foreign waste in 2018, Malaysia has become the main destination for the United States' waste exports, and the United States has increasingly relied on countries such as Malaysia to handle its plastic waste.

Data from the non-profit organization Basel Action Network, which tracks plastic waste issues, shows that in 2024 alone, waste recyclers in the United States transported over 35,000 tons of plastic waste to Malaysia.

In 2024, Malaysia seized more than 100 containers shipped from Los Angeles, which were marked as "raw materials," but actually contained hazardous waste. Malaysian Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Sustainability Negeri Sembilan said at the time: "We don't want Malaysia to become the world's trash can."

On May 28, 2019, in Port Klang, Malaysia, staff showed the media plastic waste in containers. Visual China

According to the revised Customs Act of Malaysia, the country will no longer receive plastic waste and hazardous waste from countries that have not ratified the Basel Convention.

The Basel Convention is an international convention aimed at controlling the transboundary movement of hazardous waste, with 191 contracting parties and organizations. The United States, one of the world's largest exporters of discarded plastic, is among the few countries that have not ratified the Basel Convention.

According to reports, Malaysia will still accept plastic waste from countries that have ratified the Basel Convention, but it has set strict restrictions on them, such as allowing only one type of plastic, a pollution rate of no more than 2%, and ensuring that these imported waste plastics can be recycled rather than discarded. The New York Times noted that meeting such standards is a major challenge for plastic waste collected from consumers.

Steve Wong, CEO of the global plastic recycling company Fukutomi, stated in an email to his clients that the transport of waste plastics to Malaysia has "basically come to a standstill."

Regarding Malaysia's new policies, U.S. media believe that this is a "residual effect" of China's ban on foreign waste imports since 2018. Before the ban on foreign waste was introduced, China had received about half of the world's discarded plastics and waste paper for many years.

With China's complete ban on foreign waste imports, Western countries have been struggling with the growing accumulation of plastic waste.

The New York Times mentioned that the U.S. recycling rate for its discarded plastics is less than 10%. The rest of the waste is either buried, incinerated, or sent overseas. Although some new destination countries have emerged, an increasing number of countries are beginning to refuse to accept this waste. Earlier this year, Thailand and Indonesia also announced bans on the import of plastic waste.

According to Tony R. Walker, a professor at the Faculty of Resource and Environmental Studies at Dalhousie University in Canada, China's ban "caused a shockwave in the global plastic waste trade," and other countries that received discarded plastics "soon became overwhelmed," and most of this waste ended up being dumped in landfills, incinerated, or directly discarded into the natural environment.

Walker said that many people in wealthy countries may think that the plastic they carefully sorted out has been recycled, but in fact, much of the plastic did not enter the recycling system but was treated as waste.

Kate O'Neill, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, said: "The recycling industry has not fully adapted to the previous impact, so these exports are still needed." She believes that Malaysia's ban may mean that plastic waste begins to flow to other countries with weaker processing capabilities.

Jane Dell, chairman of the anti-plastic waste organization "Last Beach Clean Up" located in Laguna Beach, California, expressed appreciation for Malaysia's decision.

In an email, she wrote: "We call on cities, waste recycling companies, intermediaries, and shipping companies to respect Malaysia's sovereignty laws and immediately stop all plastic waste shipments. These wastes must not be transferred to other poor countries."

Jim Puckett, founder of the Basel Action Network, also welcomed Malaysia's decision. He told The Los Angeles Times: "This 'recycling' is more harmful than beneficial, because only a small portion of the exported plastic is eventually recycled."

"Recycling exported plastic waste is completely a scam, and it is reassuring that the United States' contribution to this plastic waste trick is gradually being prohibited," Puckett said.

This article is an exclusive article by Observer News, and it is not allowed to be reprinted without permission.

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