Indonesia has sent hundreds of garbage-filled shipping containers back to their countries of origin. (Source: AFP/VNA)Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesia has senthundreds of garbage-filled shipping containers back to their countries oforigin as the Southeast Asian nation pushes back against becoming a dumpingground for foreign trash, the country’s customs agency said on September 4.
About 250 containers seized across the archipelago in recent months havealready been returned, the agency’s spokesman Deni Surjantoro said.
Among them, 49 containers of waste seized on Batam Island near Singapore havebeen shipped back to the United States, Germany, France, Hong Kong (China) andAustralia.
The shipments were loaded with a combination of garbage, plastic waste andhazardous materials in violation of import rules.
Nearly 200 containers have also been shipped out of Surabaya, Indonesia'ssecond-biggest city, to the US, Britain and Germany, according to customs data.
Meanwhile, customs officials are gearing up to send back about 150 containerswhile inspecting more than 1,000 others that could contain banned materials,Surjantoro said.
Data from the statistics agency showed imports of plastic waste rose 141percent last year to 283,000 tonnes, after China decided not to import thewaste to clean up its environment from January 2018.
Indonesia is struggling to deal with its own waste, which often goes intolandfills or seeps into rivers. The country is the second biggest contributorof plastic pollutants in the ocean, a 2015 study in the journal Science showed.To cut pollution, Indonesia also sought a levy on plastic bags but theparliament delayed the move, following industry complains.
About 300 million tonnes of plastic are produced every year, according to theWorldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), with much of it ending up in landfills orpolluting the seas.-VNA
VNA
