Illustrative image (Source: nst.com.my)Jakarta (VNA) - Indonesiahas sent tonnes of Australian garbage out of the country, as Southeast Asiannations push back against serving as dumps for foreign trash.
According to the local customsagency, eight containers of trash - weighing some 210 tonnes – have leftIndonesia's second-biggest city Surabaya aboard a cargo ship bound forSingapore.
Six containers contaminated withhazardous waste and two containers mixed with household rubbish left Indonesiaon August 12, said Alvina Christine Zebua, a spokeswoman for the East Javacustoms agency. But she could not confirm when the containers might arrive backin Australia.
The move comes less than a week afterAustralia pledged to stop exporting recyclable waste amid global concerns aboutplastic polluting the oceans and increasing pushback from Asian nations againstaccepting trash.
Last month, Indonesia said it wouldreturn the Australian rubbish after authorities found hazardous material andhousehold trash, including used diapers and electronic waste, in containersmeant to hold only waste paper.
Last month, Indonesia returned sevenshipping containers of illegally imported waste to France and Hong Kong.
Authorities were also preparing toreturn another 42 containers of waste, including shipments from the US,Australia and Germany.
About 300 million tonnes of plasticare produced every year, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), withmuch of it ending up in landfills or polluting the seas.-VNA
VNA
